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National  Association  of  Manufacturers 


Report 


OF  THE 


American  Trade  Commission 


ON 


Industrial  Conditions 
in  Australasia 


1914 


Issued  from  the 

SECRETARY'S  OFFICE 

30  Church  Street 
New  York 


National  Association  of  Manufacturers 

Report 

OF  THE 

American  Trade  Commission 


ON 


Industrial   Conditions 
in  Australasia 


1914 


Issued  from  tke 

SECRETARY'S  OFFICE 

30  ChurcK  Street 
New  York 


The  report  of  the  Commission  on  trie  promotion 
of  trade  in  Australasia,  the  Philippines,  and  the 
Orient,  is  contained  in  a  separate  volume,  on  file 
in  the  office  of  the  Association.  Members  desiring 
a  copy  of  such  part  thereof  as  relates  to  their 
particular  industry  can  obtain  the  same  on  request. 
Copies  of  this  report,  in  its  entirety,  will  be  sent 
to  any  address,  free  of  charge,  on  application  to  The 
National  Association  of  Manufacturers,  30  Church 
St.,  New  York 


Report  of  trie  American  Trade  Commission  of  tKe 

National  Association  of  Manufacturers  on 

Industrial  Conditions  in  Australasia* 

To  the  President  and  Board  of  Directors  of  the  National  Asso- 
ciation of  Manufacturers. 

Gentlemen  :  —  In  pursuance  of  your  action  in*  appointing  us 
a  Commission  to  visit  New  Zealand  and  Australia  for  the  pur- 
pose of  investigating  at  first  hand  the  so-called  "ideal"  industrial 
conditions  which  have  so  commonly  been  alleged  to  prevail  in 
those  countries  through  the  instrumentality  of  legislation,  with 
a  view  to  the  National  Association  of  Manufacturers  advocat- 
ing in  this  country  the  adoption  of  such  of  their  measures  as 
would  tend  to  improve  our  own  industrial  conditions,  and  with 
the  further  view  to  a  full  presentation  of  the  actual  facts  as  they 
obtain  with  respect  to  industrial  matters  and  things  germane 
thereto  in  New  Zealand  and  Australia,  we  beg  herewith  to  sub- 
mit our  report. 

Accompanied  by  Mr.  Albert  A.  Snowden,  of  the  Educa- 
tional Staff  of  our  Association,  we  sailed  February  loth,  of  the 
current  year,  from  San  Francisco,  for  Sydney,  New  South 
Wales,  arriving  at  Sydney  March  2d,  from  whence,  after  a  ten 
days'  stay,  we  sailed  for  Auckland,  New  Zealand,  and  leaving 
there  March  2oth,  we  visited  the  following  cities  in  the  order 
named:  Wellington,  Christchurch,  Dunedin  and  Invercargel, 
in  New  Zealand;  Hobart,  Tasmania;  Melbourne,  Victoria; 
Adelaide,  South  Australia;  returning  from  Adelaide  to 
Sydney,  thence  to  Brisbane  and  Townsville  in  Queensland, 
Australia,  whence  we  sailed,  June  I2th,  on  our  return  voyage, 
stopping  at  Thursday  Island,  Manila,  Hongkong,  Shanghai, 
Hankow,  Mukden,  Manchuria;  Fusan,  Korea;  Shimonoseki, 
Tokio  and  Yokohama,  Japan,  and  at  Honolulu. 

It  may  be  stated  here,  that  at  a  conference  with  our  Gen- 
eral Manager,  Mr.  Bird,  relative  to  what  additional  subjects  we 
might  investigate  with  profit  to  the  National  Association  of 
Manufacturers,  it  was  decided  that  the  subject  of  foreign  trade 
promotion  should  be  included  in  the  activities  of  your  Commis- 
sion, which,  upon  our  arrival  at  Sydney,  was  announced  by  the 
press  as  "The  American  Trade  Commission/'  and  by  which  title 

*Wherever  the  term  "Australasia"  is  used  in  this  report,  the  reference 
includes  Australia  and  New  Zealand. 


M34I828 


we  were  thereafter  recognized  throughout  our  trip.  As  both 
of  these  subjects  were  exhaustively  prosecuted,  they  furnish 
material  for  a  somewhat  lengthy  report.  Being  separate  and 
distinct  subjects,  they  will  be  treated  as  such,  and  the  results  of 
our  investigations  with  respect  to  trade  relations  will  be  sub- 
mitted to  you  in  another  and  separate  report  from  this  one. 

Commonwealth  of  Australia. 

"A  White  Man's  Government"  in  Australia  dates  back  to 
1786,  about  18  years  after  the  discovery  6f  Botany  Bay  by  Capt. 
Cook,  and  in  which  year  Port  Jackson  was  founded  as  a  place 
to  which  criminals  from  England  were  exiled  and  which  after- 
ward was  called  Sydney,  the  capital  of  New  South  Wales. 
Then  came  Tasmania  in  1825;  Western  Australia  in  1829; 
South  Australia  in  1834;  Victoria  in  1851;  Queensland  in  1859, 
and  Northern  Territory  in  1863. 

January  I,  1901,  these  several  independent  States  and  their 
included  territories  were  federated  under  the  name  "Common- 
wealth of  Australia,"  and  adopted  a  Constitution  modeled  after 
that  of  the  United  States  of  America,  but  modified  in  some  par- 
ticulars. The  following  statements  and  figures  are  based  on 
statistics  published  by  the  Commonwealth  Statistician. 

The  area  of  Australia  is  2,974,581  square  miles — approxi- 
mately the  same  as  that  of  the  United  States,  exclusive  of 
Alaska.  Its  total  population,  exclusive  of  full-blooded  aborigines 
who  formerly  exclusively  peopled  the  country,  in  1901  was 
3,825,000,  and  in  1912,  4,733,000,  being  an  increase  of  908,000  in 
12  years,  a  yearly  average  of  75,666.  Over  one-half  the  popu- 
lation live  in  cities.  Its  most  northerly  border  is  at  Thursday 
Island,  in  Torres  Straight,  a  town  of  a  few  hundred  people, 
mostly  Japanese,  a  five  days'  ride  from  Brisbane,  by  water. 

The  principal  cities  of  Australia  are  Brisbane,  Sydney, 
Melbourne,  Perth  and  Hobart. 

Principal  Cities  of  Australia. 

Brisbane,  the  capital  of  Queensland,  is  a  city  of  147,000 
people.  It  is  situated  on  both  sides  of  the  Brisbane  River,  about 
seven  miles  from  its  mouth,  where  at  present  the  larger  ocean 
steamers  dock  at  Pinkenba,  the  river  being  navigable  only  for 
ocean  steamers  of  medium  draught.  Additional  shipping  facilities 
will  soon  be  provided,  as  extensive  dredging  operations  are  going 
on  with  a  view  to  deepening  the  channel  so  as  to  pass  the  largest 
ocean  vessels  up  to  the  city  docks,  and  thus  make  ready  for  the 
increase  in  shipping  which,  it  is  believed,  the  opening  of  the 

4 


Panama  Canal  will  bring  to  the  city,  and  which,  from  a  geo- 
graphical viewpoint,  will  naturally  become  the  first  Australian 
port  at  which  vessels  from  the  United  States,  through  the  canal, 
to  Australia  will  stop.  The  city  has  no  sewerage  system  and  a 
big  problem  faces  its  people  in  this  regard,  as  they  fully  appre- 
ciate the  necessity  for  the  same. 

Sydney,  the  capital  of  New  South  Wales,  lies  700  miles  to 
the  south  of  Brisbane,  and  together  with  its  immediately  ad- 
joining suburbs  has  a  population  of  675,000.  Sydney  harbor 
is  claimed  to  be  the  finest  harbor  in  the  world,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  Buenos  Aires.  It  is  said  to  have  from  600  to  900 
miles  of  shore  frontage,  skirting  its  many  small  islands,  coves 
and  bays.  On  entering  the  harbor  the  stranger  is  amazed  at  the 
vast  number  of  vessels,  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  which  he 
sees  being  loaded  and  unloaded.  It  is  then  that  he  realizes  the 
fact  that  Sydney  is  the  fifth  city  in  the  world  in  shipping  im- 
portance, and  that  it  is  the  principal  distributing  port  for  a 
vast  portion  of  trade  in  the  far  South  East.  The  city  itself 
has  the  appearance  of  age  and  substantiality.  Many  of  its  busi- 
ness and  public  buildings  are  massive  and  of  fairly  good  archi- 
tectural construction.  Its  streets,  though  rather  narrow,  are 
well  paved,  as  is  true  of  all  the  principal  Australian  cities,  and 
are  kept  clean  and  in  excellent  sanitary  condition. 

Melbourne,  the  capital  of  Victoria  and  also  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, lying,  as  it  does,  550  miles  to  the  south  of  Sydney, 
at  the  head  of  Hobson  Bay  (Port  Phillip),  is  justly  entitled 
to  be  called  the  gem  city  of  Australia.  It  has  a  population  of 
approximately  600,000.  Its  streets  are  broad  and  laid  out  prin- 
cipally at  right  angles,  with  the  roadways  and  the  sidewalks 
level  with  each  other  at  the  street  intersections,  catch  basins 
being  arranged  at  each  crossing  to  receive  and  carry  the  surface 
water  into  the  sewers.  This  system  of  street  construction  at- 
tracted our  attention  as  being  a  marked  improvement  over  the 
custom  of  extending  the  curb  around  the  street  corners,  which 
forms  a  step  from  the  sidewalk  to  the  street,  as  we  do  in  our 
American  cities. 

The  business  and  public  buildings  of  Melborune  will  com- 
pare favorably  with  those  of  any  American  city  of  its  size.  Its 
Botanical  Gardens  are  beautiful  and  attractive,  and  its  museum 
is  a  place  of  interest  of  which  Melbourne  citizens  may  well 
feel  proud.  Its  hospital  would  do  credit  to  any  city  in  the 
world. 

There  are  many  fine  residences  in  Melbourne,  but  they  are 
nearly  all  surrounded  by  hideous  corrugated  iron  or  other  type 
of  close  fences,  six  to  eight  feet  in  height,  which  hide  from 

5 


view  the  beautiful  grounds  which  surround  most  of  them  and 
which,  if  removed,  would  add  greatly  to  the  beauty  of  the  city, 
whose  general  appearance  resembles  the  city  of  Washington, 
D.  C. 

Adelaide,  the  capital  of  South  Australia,  is  a  city  of  ap- 
proximately 170,000  population,  situated  500  miles  from  Mel- 
bourne in  the  southeast  corner  of  the  State.  The  city  has  a 
good  harbor  and  is  splendidly  laid  out,  with  well-paved,  broad 
streets,  and  its  sanitary  conditions  appear  to  be  excellent.  It 
has  many  fine  business  and  public  buildings,  and  wears  the  air 
of  a  well-to-do  community. 

Perhaps  the  most  noticeable  feature  about  Adelaide,  at  least 
the  one  that  attracted  our  admiration  most,  is  its  large  number 
of  artistically  appearing  small  dwellings  built  of  red  pressed 
brick  with  sandstone  trimmings  and  red  tile  roofs.  Although 
these  houses  are  all  similar  in  style  and  design,  they  present  a 
very  pleasing  effect  and  give  to  the  city  the  appearance  of  pros- 
perity and  a  comfortably  cared-for  community.  A  city  ordi- 
nance, we  were  informed,  prohibits  the  erection  of  frame  build- 
ings within  the  city  limits.  Of  all  the  cities  we  visited,  none 
presented  to  us  a  more  attractive  appearance  than  Adelaide, 
and  nowhere  did  we  meet  more  congenial  people. 

Perth,  the  capital  of  Western  Australia,  is  a  city  of  36,000 
population,  situated  on  the  west  coast  of  Australia,  1350  miles 
from  Melbourne,  by  water  route.  As  we  did  not  visit  Perth  we 
are  unable  to  speak  of  it  from  the  viewpoint  of  personal  obser- 
vation, but  we  were  informed  that  it  is  a  city  of  large  commer- 
cial and  shipping  interests  and  possesses  most  of  the  advantages 
incident  to  the  average  modern  city  of  its  size. 

Hobart  is  the  capital  of  Tasmania  (once  known  as  Van 
Dieman's  Land),  and  has  a  population  of  about  40,000.  It  is 
situated  on  the  southeast  coast  of  Tasmania,  284  miles  south- 
east of  Melbourne,  close  to  the  southern  extremity  of  the  Island 
of  Tasmania,  which  is  separated  from  the  mainland  by  Bass 
Straight,  about  175  miles  across.  Hobart  has  all  the  appear- 
ances of  a  prosperous  community,  and  being  the  principal  ship- 
ping point  for  the  products  of  the  State,  it  has  one  of  the  largest 
and  best  equipped  shipping  wharfs  that  we  saw  anywhere  in  our 
travels.  Hobart  also  boasts  of  having  the  largest  single  jam- 
making  establishment  in  the  world. 

Pensions-Public  Debt. 

It  has  been  said  that  "people  are  best  governed  that  are 
least  governed,"  but  Australia  has  not  acted  on  that  theory,  for 

6 


with  a  population  less  than  that  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  its  State 
and  Federal  Governments  are  sufficiently  extensive  and  compli- 
cated for  a  population  of  50,000,000  people,  and  their  cost  of 
maintenance,  when  borne  by  less  than  5,000,000,  makes  it  a  heavy 
tax  burden  upon  those  who  are  called  upon  to  pay  the  bills. 
We  were  informed  that  the  employees  of  the  State  and  Federal 
Governments  number  one  in  every  eight  of  the  total  population. 

The  sum  paid  annually  to  85,346  old  age  and  14,410  invalid 
pensioners  is  approximately  £2,526,765  (f  12,280,000),  and  from 
October  10,  1912  (commencement),  to  October  25,  1913,  there 
was  paid  on  account  of  127,011  maternity  claims,  £635,055 
($3,086,367). 

The  total  debt  of  the  Commonwealth  itself  June  30,  1913, 
was  £7,430,949  ($36,114,412),  and  the  Commonwealth  and 
States  combined  £301,913,113  ($1,467,297,729),  or,  to  be  more 
specific,  $310.70  per  head. 

Railways  of  Australia. 

In  1913  there  were  17,777  miles  of  Government  owned  and 
operated  railroads  open  for  traffic,  as  follows:  Commonwealth 
145;  Queensland  4,524;  New  South  Wales  3,930;  Victoria 
3,647;  South  Australia  2,168;  West  Australia  2,854;  Tasmania 
509;  the  combined  gross  earnings  of  which  were,  for  the  fiscal 
year — 1912-13 — £19,955,000  ($96,981,300)  ;  the  operating  ex- 
penses, £13,597,000  ($66,081,420)  ;  the  percentage  of  operating 
expenses  on  gross  earnings,  68.14;  the  net  earnings,  £6,358,000 
($30,899,880),  and  the  percentage  of  net  earnings  on  the  capital 
cost  3.66.  These  figures,  however,  which  are  those  given  out 
by  the  Commonwealth  Bureau  of  Census  and  Statistics,  are  not 
generally  accepted  as  showing  the  actual  result  of  the  railway 
operations,  as  all  depends  on  the  system  of  bookkeeping  and  how 
the  figures  are  arrived  at.  We  discussed  this  subject  with  a 
number  of  business  men,  all  of  whom  declared  that  the  railways 
were  a  heavy  drain  on  the  public  purse. 

A  serious  drawback  to  the  country  is  experienced  in  the 
lack  of  railway  facilities  in  the  interior,  and  also  by  reason  of 
the  variation  in  gauges  necessitating  the  transfer  of  freight  and 
passengers  at  the  State  border  lines.  For  example,  the  Queens- 
land lines  are  3  feet  6  inches  gauge;  New  South  Wales  4  feet 
Sy2  inches ;  Victoria  5  feet  3  inches ;  South  Australia  4  feet  8j4 
inches,  etc. 

The  Commonwealth  Government  now  has  under  construc- 
tion a  line  4  feet  8^  inches  gauge,  1000  miles  in  length,  from  Kal- 
goolie,  in  West  Australia,  to  Port  Augusta,  in  South  Australia, 

7 


which  when  completed  will  connect  with  a  line  from  Perth  to 
Kalgoolie,  and  another  from  Port  Augusta  to  Adelaide,  thence 
via  South  Australia  and  Victoria  lines  to  Melbourne,  thus  form- 
ing through  rail  communication  from  the  west  to  the  east  coasts 
and  from  Melbourne  northwardly  to  Sydney  and  Brisbane. 

There  are  no  privately  owned  railways  in  Australasia,  and 
no  franchises  are  obtainable  except  conditioned  on  their  being 
turned  over  to  the  Government  at  a  given  time. 

We  cannot  subscribe  to  much  of  the  adverse  criticisms  of 
the  railways  of  Australasia,  which  have  been  based  on  compari- 
son with  the  railways  of  older  and  much  more  extensively  popu- 
lated countries.  Whether  they  are  self-supporting  or  not,  when 
considered  in  the  light  of  the  large  area  of  country  and  its  small 
population,  together  with  the  fact  that  they  are  a  part  of  the 
political  system  of  the  country,  we  think  that  they  are  in  the 
hands  of  honest  and  capable  men  and  that  they  are  well  managed 
and  render  fair  service  to  the  public.  And,  while  their  tariff 
rates  are  much  higher  than  those  in  the  United  States,  it  is 
quite  apparent  that  they  are  deficient  in  many  ways,  lacking  in 
conveniences  and  improvements  which  result  from  individual 
experiments,  and  which,  through  personal  interests  and  diver- 
sity of  inventive  genius,  private  corporations  are  always  keen 
to  recognize  and  adopt. 

Other  Government  Owned  Industries. 

We  could  obtain  no  official  statistics  with  respect  to  Gov- 
ernment owned  industries  other  than  railways,  and  are  therefore 
unable  to  give  a  complete  report  as  to  all  of  its  functions,  but 
we  gathered  some  information  relative  thereto  from  the  news- 
papers and  business  men  with  whom  we  discussed  the  subject, 
to  the  effect  that  in  addition  to  the  railways  and  the  telegraph 
and  telephone  systems  the  Government  owns  and  operates  all 
the  lighting  and  water  plants,  some  of  the  mines  and  banks,  all 
the  sleeping  cars  and  railway  eating  houses,  engages  in  the  life 
insurance  business,  and  regulates  the  amount  of  wages  that  shall 
be  received  and  paid  for  labor.  The  proposition  to  put  a  pre- 
mium on  idleness  by  paying  wages  to  unemployed  is  being  con- 
sidered. The  law  requires  that,  in  addition  to  Sunday,  you 
must  close  your  place  of  business  one  half  day  each  week,  either 
on  Wednesday  or  Saturday  afternoon,  and  that  you  must 
register  with  the  Government  which  day  you  elect  to  observe  as 
the  half  holiday — most  merchants  close  both  afternoons,  as  busi- 
ness is  so  dead  that  it  does  not  pay  them  to  keep  open.  You  are 
liable  to  arrest  and  fine  if  you  keep  open  after  the  time  fixed  by 

8 


law  to  close  up  your  business  establishment.  One  merchant 
said  that  he  was  "So  annoyed  by  Governmental  restrictions  of 
personal  liberty  in  doing  business  that  he  felt  very  much  inclined 
to  pack  up  and  get  out  of  the  country.  The  law  keeps  making 
it  harder  and  harder  to  carry  on  business."  Another  dealer  said, 
"This  used  to  be  a  good  country  to  make  money  in,  but  the 
lawmakers  and  the  labor  unions  have  killed  it." 

There  are  a  number  of  State  and  municipal  owned  meat 
killing -and  freezing  plants  doing  business  in  competition  with 
private  concerns.  New  South  Wales  operates  a  brick-making 
plant,  a  bakery  and  several  other  industries  in  addition  to  the 
tramway  lines  in  Sydney,  which  are  a  part  of  the  steam  rail- 
ways system.  In  Victoria  the  State  owns  and  operates  a  coal 
mine,  a  killing  and  freezing  plant  and  a  sugar  beet  plant.  The 
coal  mine  is  said  to  be  "sick,"  and  the  beet  plant  closed  as  a 
failure  after  an  expenditure  of  approximately  $2,000,000  of  the 
public  funds.  These  Government  owned  industries  are  subject 
to  the  same  labor  conditions  as  are  private  concerns,  as  will  be 
shown  later  on.  But  when  strikes  occur  in  any  of  the  industries 
a  demand  is  set  up  by  the  labor  unions  for  the  "nationalization" 
of  the  industry,  which  sometimes  is  done. 

Although  we  could  get  no  definite  or  reliable  statement  or 
figures  with  respect  to  the  financial  operations  of  these  Govern- 
ment owned  industries,  yet  we  were  convinced  from  the  infor- 
mation we  did  obtain  that  none  of  them  were  returning  to  the 
people  "value  received"  and  that  from  a  financial  standpoint  the 
results  obtained  from  their  operation  would  soon  cause  the 
"finish"  of  privately-owned  institutions. 

Barring  New  Zealand,  Australia  leads  the  world  in  State 
paternalism  and  in  effort  of  the  State  to  work  out  the  destinies 
of  its  individual  citizens  by  placing  on  a  par  with  the  energetic, 
thoughtful  and  frugal  individual,  the  profligate,  idle  and  shiftless 
class  who  are  always  ready  and  willing  to  accept  the  benefits  of 
those  whose  superior  efforts  produce  results  which  make  for 
advancement,  and  which  when  achieved  belong  to  those  who  earn 
them  and  not  to  the  "common  herd."  The  result  of  such  a 
policy  is  to  make  business  ventures  more  hazardous  and  un- 
certain, to  penalize  industry  and  thrift  and  give  the  reward  to 
the  lazy  and  improvident.  It  is  visible  everywhere  in  Australia. 

As  to  the  Sydney  tramways  system,  it  appears  to  be  well  man- 
aged and  to  give  excellent  service  to  the  public.  Its  fares  are 
divided  into  sections,  a  penny  (2  cents  in  United  States  money) 
for  each  section.  A  ride  of  four  miles  costs  4d.  (8  cents), 
which,  while  being  a  more  equitable  system  of  fares,  is  in  the 
higher  than  is  charged  in  the  United  States,  where,  in 


some  cities,  one  can  ride  a  distance  of  12  miles  or  more  for  a 
nickel.  The  operation  of  the  system  for  its  last  fiscal  year 
showed  a  deficit  of  £61,038,  which  is  hereinafter  referred  to 
in  a  newspaper  account. 

In  Brisbane  and  Melbourne  the  tramways  are  owned  and 
operated  by  private  corporations  under  options  of  the  munici- 
palities to  take  them  over  at  certain  specified  times.  In  Ade- 
laide the  city  owns  and  operates  the  system. 

As  before  stated,  the  telegraph  and  telephone  systems  are 
Government  owned  and  operated.  If  you  want  a  local  tele- 
phone communication  you  drop  a  penny  in  the  slot.  In  some 
places  the  service  was  fairly  good,  in  others  not.  Our  experi- 
ence in  Sydney  was  not  flattering  to  the  telephone  system.  We 
soon  abandoned  its  use  and  resorted  to  the  methods  employed 
before  the  telephone  was  introduced. 

Taxes. 

We  were  asked  to  investigate  the  system  of  taxation  in 
Australia,  but  we  found  it  a  difficult  matter  to  obtain  definite 
or  statistical  information  covering  the  subject  in  detail.  We 
learned,  however,  through  various  sources  that  pretty  much 
every  available  means  is  employed  to  raise  revenue  sufficient 
to  meet  the  liberal  expenditures  of  the  Government.  There  is 
the  ever  increasing  land  tax ;  an  income  tax  on  incomes  above 
£200;  an  import  tax;  a  license  tax  on  every  form  of  business 
from  a  boarding  house  to  a  hotel ;  a  stamp  tax  which  requires 
that  in  business  transactions  practically  every  piece  of  paper 
that  bears  a  signature  must  also  bear  a  tax  stamp,  and  for  the 
privilege  of  passing  through  the  gates  of  a  railway  station  to  see 
your  friends  off  on  the  train  you  are  taxed  two-pence. 

Workmen's  Compensation. 

Laws  providing  for  compensation  of  workers  injured  in  the 
course  of  their  employment  have  been  in  force  throughout  Aus- 
tralasia for  some  years.  And,  as  our  Association  has  devoted  a 
great  deal  of  time  and  money  in  promoting  sane  and  equitable 
legislation  of  this  character,  in  the  various  States,  it  is  especially 
fitting  that  space  in  this  report  be  given  to  this  branch  of  indus- 
trial legislation.  Owing  to  the  absence  of  statistical  data  we 
are  unable  to  give  figures  showing  the  sums  paid  annually 
to  injured  workers  and  their  dependents,  in  accordance  with  the 
provisions  of  these  laws.  But  the  following  extracts  from  the 
Schedule  and  Code  of  Regulations  under  which  the  Queensland 
Workers'  Compensation  Act  of  1905  is  administered,  are 

10 


quoted  as  covering  the  general  character  of  such  legislation 
throughout  Australia  and  New  Zealand,  and  which,  suffice  to 
say,  have  been  freely  copied,  from  in  the  United  States,  viz. : 

(1)  If,  in  any  employment  to  which  this  Act  applies,  personal  injury  by 
accident  arising  out  of  and  in  the  course  of  the  employment  is  caused 
to  a  worker,  his  employer  shall,  subject  as  hereinafter  mentioned,  be 
liable  to  pay  compensation  in  accordance  with  the  Schedule  to  this  Act. 

(2)  The  employer  shall  not  be  liable  under  this  Act  in  respect  of  any 
injury  which — 

(i)  Does  not  disable  the  worker  for  a  period  of  at  least  three  days 
from  earning  full  wages  at  the  work  at  which  he  was  em- 
ployed ;  or 

(n)  Is  directly  attributable  to  the  serious  and  wilful  misconduct  of 
the  worker  injured;  or 

(in)  Occurs  to  a  worker  whilst  proceeding  to  or  frpm  his  place  of 
work. 

*  *      * 

(1)  If  the  Governor  in  Council,  after  taking  steps  to  ascertain  the  views 
of  the  employer  and  workmen,  certifies  that  any  scheme  of  compen- 
sation, benefit,  or  insurance  for  the  workmen  of  an  employer  in  any 
employment,  whether  or  not  such  scheme  includes  other  employers 
and  their  workmen,  is  on  the  whole  not  less  favorable  to  the  general 
body  of  workmen  and  their  dependants  than  the  provisions  of  this 
Act,  the  employer  may,  until  the  certificate  is  revoked,  contract  with 
any  of  those  workmen  that  the  provisions  of  the   scheme  shall  be 
substituted  for  the  provisions  of  this  Act,  and  thereupon  the  employer 
shall  be  liable  only  in  accordance  with  the  scheme. 

But,  save  as  aforesaid,  this  Act  shall  apply,  notwithstanding  any 
contract  to  the  contrary  made  after  the  commencement  of  this  Act. 

(2)  The  Governor  in  Council  may  give  a  certificate  to  expire  at  the  end 
of  a  limited  period  not  less  than  five  years. 

(3)  No  scheme  shall  be  so  certified  which  contains  an  obligation  upon 
the  workmen  to  join  the  scheme  as  a  condition  of  their  hiring. 

(4)  If  complaint  is  made  to  the  Governor  in  Council  by  or  on  behalf  of 
the  workmen  of  any  employer  that — 

(i)  The  provisions  of  any  scheme  are  no  longer  on  the  whole  so 
favorable  to  the  general  body  of  workmen  of  such  employer  and 
their  dependants  as  the  provisions  of  this  Act;  or 
(n)  The  provisions  of  such  scheme  are  being  violated;  or 
(in)  The  scheme  is  not  being  fairly  administered;  or 
(iv)  Satisfactory  reasons  exist  for  revoking  the  certificate; 
the  Governor  in  Council,  if  satisfied  that  good  cause  exists  for  such 
complaint,  shall,  unless  the  cause  of  complaint  is  removed,  revoke  the 
certificate. 

(5)  When  a  certificate  is  revoked  or  expires,  any  moneys  or  securities 
held  for  the  purpose  of  the  scheme  shall  be  distributed  as  may  be 
arranged  between  the  employer  and  workmen,  or  as  may  be  deter- 
mined by  the  Governor  in  Council  in  the  event  of  a  difference  of 
opinion. 

(6)  Whenever  a  scheme  has  been  certified  as  aforesaid,  it  shall  be  the 
duty  of  the  employer  to  answer  all  such  inquiries  and  to  furnish  all 
such  accounts  in  regard  to  the  scheme  as  may  be  made  or  required  by 
the  Governor  in  Council. 

*  *      * 

From  and  after  the  commencement  of  this  Act,  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for 
any  employer  or  any  person  on  his  behalf,  or  for  any  insurance  com- 

ii 


pany  or  any  person  on  its  behalf,  to  directly  or  indirectly  take  or 
receive  any  money  from  any  worker,  whether  by  way  of  deduction 
from  wages  or  otherwise  howsoever,  in  respect  of  any  liability  of  an 
employer  to  pay  compensation  under  this  Act  or  damages  indepen- 
dently of  this  Act. 

*  *      * 

Where  death  results  from  the  injury. — If  the  worker  leaves  any  depen- 
dants wholly  dependent  upon  his  earnings  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
a  sum  equal  to  his  earnings  in  the  employment  of  the  same  employer 
during  the  three  years  next  preceding  the  injury,  or  the  sum  of  200 
pounds,  whichever  of  those  sums  is  the  larger,  but  not  exceeding  in 
any  case  400  pounds. 

*  *      * 

Where  total  or  partial  incapacity  for  work  results  from  the  injury,  a 
weekly  payment  during  the  incapacity  not  exceeding  50  per  centum 
of  his  average  weekly  earnings  during  the  previous  twelve  months, 
if  he  has  been  so  long  employed,  but  if  not,  then  for  any  less  period 
during  which  he  has  been  in  the  employment  of  the  same  employer, 
but  such  weekly  payment  shall  not  exceed  one  pound,  and  the  total 
liability  of  the  employer  in  respect  thereof  shall  not  exceed  400  pounds: 

Provided  that— 

(a)  In  the  case  of  a  worker  whom  his  employer  has  reasonable  cause 
to  believe  to  be  over  sixty  years  of  age,  and  who  has  entered 
into  an  agreetnent  in  writing  with  his  employer  as  to  the  maxi- 
mum amount  of  compensation  to  be  payable  to  him  under  this 
Act  in  respect  of  accidents  happening  after  the  date  of  the  agree- 
ment, the  compensation  shall  not  exceed  that  maximum,  but  the 
maximum  shall  not  be  less — 
(i)  Where  death  results  from  the  injury,  and  the  worker  leaves 

.    any  dependants,  than  50  pounds ; 

(n)  Where  total  or  partial  incapacity  for  work  results  from  the 
injury,  than  a  weekly  payment  during  the  incapacity  of  five 
shillings,  and  a  total  liability  of  50  pounds; 

(fc)  In  the  case  of  a  workman  who  has,  in  accordance  with  the  regu- 
lations, obtained  from  a  medical  referee  a  certificate  to  the  effect 
that  his  age  or  any  physical  infirmity  or  incapacity  from  which  he 
is  suffering  is  such  as  to  render  him  specially  liable  to  accident, 
or  to  render  the  result  of  an  accident  to  him  specially  serious, 
and  who  has  entered  into  an  agreement  in  writing  with  his  em- 
ployer as  to  the  maximum  amount  of  compensation  to  be  pay- 
able to  him  under  this  Act  in   respect  of  accidents   happening 
after  the  date  of  the  agreement,  the  compensation  shall  not  exceed 
that  maximum,  but  the  maximum  shall  not  be  less — 
(i)  Where  death  results  from  the  injury,  and  the  worker  leaves 
any  dependants,  than  25  pounds  or  a  sum  equivalent  to  39 
times  his  average  weekly  earnings,  whichever  is  the  larger; 
(n)  Where  total  or  partial  incapacity  for  work  results  from  the 
injury,  than  a  weekly  payment  during  the  incapacity  of  five 
shillings    or    one-quarter    of    his    average    weekly    earnings, 
whichever  is  the  larger,  and  a  total  liability  of  50  pounds ; 
(c)  As   respects  the   weekly  payment   during  total   incapacity  to   a 
worker  who  is  under  21  years  of  age  at  the  date  of  the  injury, 
and   whose  average  weekly  earnings  are  less  than  20  shillings, 
100  per  centum  shall  be  substituted   for  50  per  centum  of  his 
average   weekly  earnings,   but   the  weekly  payment   shall   in   no 
case  exceed  ten  shillings. 

*  *      * 

Where  a  worker  has  given  notice  of  an  accident  he  shall,  if  so  required 
by  the  employer,  submit  himself  for  examination  by  a  duly  qualified 

12 


medical  practitioner  provided  and  paid  by  the  employer ;  and  if  he 
refuses  to  submit  himself  to  such  examination,  or  in  any  way  ob- 
structs the  same,  his  right  to  compensation,  and  any  proceeding 
under  this  Act  in  relation  to  compensation,  shall  be  suspended  until 
such  examination  takes  place. 

The  payment  shall,  in  case  of  death,  be  made  to  the  legal  personal  repre- 
sentative of  the  worker,  or,  if  he  has  no  legal  personal  representative, 
to  or  for  the  benefit  of  his  dependants,  or,  if  he  leaves  no  dependants, 
to  the  person  to  whom  the  expenses  are  due;  and,  if  made  to  the 
legal  personal  representative,  shall  be  paid  by  him  to  or  for  the 
benefit  of  the  dependants  or  other  persons  entitled  thereto  under 
this  Act. 

Any  question  as  to  who  is  a  dependant  or  as  to  the  amount  payable  to 
each  dependant  shall,  in  default  of  agreement,  be  settled  by  a  police 
magistrate  under  this  Act. 

The  sum  allotted  as  compensation  to  a  dependant  may  be  invested  or 
otherwise  applied  for  the  benefit  of  the  person  entitled  thereto  as 
agreed,  or,  in  default  of  agreement,  as  ordered  by  the  police  magis- 
trate. 

Where  it  appears  to  a  police  magistrate,  on  any  information  which  the 
police  magistrate  considers  sufficient,  that  a  widow  to  whom  any  sum 
is  payable  under  this  Act,  whether  by  way  of  an  annuity  or  as  instal- 
ments or  otherwise,  ought  on  account  of  her  remarriage,  or  on 
account  of  drunkenness,  neglect  of  children,  or  other  sufficient  mis- 
conduct on  her  part,  to  be  deprived  of  the  whole  or  any  part  of  any 
such  sums,  or  that  the  terms  on  which,  or  the  manner  in  which,  any 
such  sums  are  payable  to  the  widow  ought  to  be  varied,  the  police 
magistrate  may  order  such  deprivation  or  variation,  and  may,  on 
application  being  made  in  accordance  with  the  regulations,  make  such 
further  order,  for  the  payment  of  the  sums  of  which  the  widow  has 
been  deprived  to  or  for  the  benefit  of  other  dependants  or  of  the 
employer,  as  in  the  circumstances  of  the  case  the  police  magistrate 
may  think  just. 

Any  worker  receiving  weekly  payments  under  this  Act  shall,  if  so  re- 
quired by  the  employer,  from  time  to  time  submit  himself  for 
examination  by  a  duly  qualified  medical  practitioner  provided  and 
paid  by  the  employer.  If  the  worker  refuses  to  submit  himself  to 
such  examination  or  in  any  way  obstructs  the  same,  his  right  to  such 
weekly  payments  shall  be  suspended  until  such  examination  has  taken 
place. 

A  worker  shall  not  be  required  to  submit  himself  for  examination  by  a 
medical  practitioner  under  paragraph  four  or  paragraph  nine  of  this 
Schedule,  otherwise  than  in  accordance  with  the  regulations;  and 
where  he  has  so  submitted  himself  for  examination,  he  shall  not,, 
without  the  leave  of  the  police  magistrate,  be  again  required  to  so 
submit  himself  until  after  the  expiration  of  one  month  after  the 
previous  examination. 

Where  a  worker  has  so  submitted  himself  for  examination  by  a  medical 
practitioner,  and  the  employer  has,  within  six  days  after  such  exami- 
nation, furnished  the  worker  with  a  copy  of  the  report  of  that  prac- 
titioner as  to  his  condition,  then,  in  the  event  of  no  agreement  being 
come  to  between  the  employer  and  the  worker  as  to  the  worker's 
condition  or  fitness  for  employment,  the  police  magistrate— 
(0)  In  the  case  of  a  submission  for  examination  under  paragraph 
four  of  this  Schedule,  on  application  being  made  to  the  police- 
magistrate  by  the  employer,  and  on  payment  by  him  of  such  fee 
as  may  be  fixed,  not  exceeding  the  limit  prescribed  by  the  regu- 
lations, may;  and 

13 


(b)  In  the  case  of  a  submission  for  examination  under  paragraph 
nine  of  this  Schedule,  on  application  being  made  to  the  police 
magistrate  by  either  party,  and  on  payment  by  such  party  of 
such  fee  as  may  be  fixed,  not  exceeding  the  limit  prescribed  by 
the  regulations,  shall 
refer  the  matter  to  a  medical  referee. 

The  medical  referee  to  whom  the  matter  is  so  referred  shall,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  regulations,  give  a  certificate  as  to  the  condition  of  the 
worker  and  his  fitness  for  employment,  specifying,  where  necessary, 
the  kind  of  employment  for  which  he  is  fit;  and  that  certificate  shall 
be  conclusive  evidence  as  to  the  matter  so  certified. 

If  a  worker,  on  being  required  to  do  so,  refuses  to  submit  himself  for 
examination  by  a  medical  referee  to  whom  the  matter  has  been  so 
referred  as  aforesaid,  or  in  any  way  obstructs  the  same,  his  right 
to  compensation  and  any  proceeding  under  this  Act  in  relation  to 
compensation,  or  in  the  case  of  a  worker  in  receipt  of  a  weekly  pay- 
ment his  right  to  that  weekly  payment,  shall  be  suspended  until  such 
examination  has  taken  place. 

The  regulations  may  prescribe  the  manner  in  which  documents  are  to  be 
furnished  or  served  and  applications  made  under  this  paragraph, 
and  the  forms  to  be  used  for  those  purposes,  and  as  to  the  fee  to  be 
paid  under  this  paragraph. 

Any  weekly  payment  may  be  reviewed  by  a  police  magistrate  at  the 
request  either  of  the  employer  or  of  the  worker,  and  on  such  review 
may  be  ended,  diminished,  or  increased,  subject  to  the  maximum 
above  provided : 

Provided  that  where  the  worker  was  at  the  date  of  the  accident  under 
21  years  of  age,  and  the  review  takes  place  more  than  twelve  months 
after  the  accident,  the  amount  of  the  weekly  payment  may  be  in- 
creased to  any  amount  not  exceeding  50  per  centum  of  the  weekly 
sum  which  the  worker  would  probably  have  been  earning  at  the 
date  of  the  review  if  he  had  remained  uninjured,  but  not  in  any 
case  exceeding  one  pound. 

Where  any  weekly  payment  has  been  continued  for  not  less  than  three 
months,  the  liability  therefor  may,  on  the  application  by  or  on  behalf 
of  the  employer,  be  redeemed  by  the  payment  of  a  lump  sum  to  be 
agreed  on  by  the  parties,  or,  in  default  of  agreement,  to  be  deter- 
mined by  a  police  magistrate  under  this  Act;  and  such  lump  sum 
may  be  ordered  by  the  police  magistrate  to  be  invested  or  otherwise 
applied  for  the  benefit  of  the  person  entitled  thereto. 

If  a  worker  receiving  weekly  payment  ceases  to  reside  in  the  Common- 
wealth he  shall  thereupon  cease  to  be  entitled  to  receive  any  weekly 
payment,  but  if  he  proves  that  the  incapacity  resulting  from  the 
injury  is  of  a  permanent  nature  he  shall  be  entitled  to  a  lump  sum 
not  exceeding  156  times  the  amount  of  weekly  payment  less  all  pay- 
ments theretofore  paid.  Any  questions  arising  under  this  paragraph 
shall,  in  default  of  agreement,  be  determined  by  a  police  magistrate. 

No  money  paid  or  payable  in  respect  of  compensation  under  this  Act 
shall  be  capable  of  being  assigned,  charged,  taken  in  execution,  or 
attached,  nor  shall  the  same  pass  to  any  other  person  by  operation 
of  law,  nor  shall  any  claim  be  set  off  against  the  same. 

When  payment  of  any  moneys  under  this  Act  is  made  to  any  person 
under  21  years  of  age,  whether  such  person  claims  as  a  worker, 
dependant,  or  legal  personal  representative,  the  receipt  of  such  person 
therefor  shall  be  a  good  and  valid  discharge  in  law ;  and  such  person 
(notwithstanding  minority)  may,  with  the  approval  of  a  police 
magistrate,  elect  to  claim  compensation  under  this  Act,  and  may 
agree  upon  the  amount  of  compensation  payable. 

14 


Homes  for  Workingmen. 

The  Australian  and  New  Zealand  Governments  both  have 
in  operation  a  scheme  for  building  homes  for  the  working  classes, 
which  is  not  unlike  the  plan  upon  which  hundreds  of  Building 
and  Loan  Associations  operate  in  the  United  States,  as  well  as 
in  Australasia.  Upon  a  deposit  of  £10  ($48.60)  they  will  sell 
a  man  a  lot  and  build  him  a  house  upon  it,  charging  rental  at 
7j£  per  cent  of  the  cost  of  the  lot  and  improvements,  2^2  per 
cent  being  credited  on  the  principal  toward  liquidating  the  loan. 
At  Wellington,  N.  Z.,  the  Secretary  of  the  Department  of  Labor 
very  kindly  invited  us  to  join  him  and  the  Government  Architect 
on  a  tour  of  examination  of  some  of  these  homes,  which  invita- 
tion we  gladly  and  appreciatively  accepted.  We  were  driven 
three  or  four  miles  into  the  suburbs  and  there  given  the  privilege 
of  examining  several  newly  built  and  occupied,  four-  and  five- 
room  cottage's,  costing  from  ^350  ($1,701)  to  £500  (12,430). 
The  cost  of  the  same  houses  in  Dayton,  Ohio,  for  example,  would 
not  exceed  from  $1,350  to  $2,000,  and  the  terms  offered  by  the 
Building  and  Loan  Associations  of  Dayton,  the  difference  in  cost 
of  the  houses  being  considered,  are  fully  as  favorable  to  the 
workman  as  are  those  above  mentioned;  the  workman's  equity 
in  the  property  being  as  secure  in  one  case  as  in  the  other.  We 
could  see  no  reason  why  the  Government  should  embark  in 
such  business  when  there  are  Building  and  Loan  Associations 
organized  expressly  for  the  same  purpose  and  which  are  under 
Governmental  supervision  and  regulation,  except  a  desire  to  en- 
gage in  business  pursuits  with  which,  in  our  judgment,  it  should 
not  meddle. 

Anti-Trust  Legislation. 

The  Trust  problem  is  a  live  issue  in  Australia.  We  were 
informed  by  a  prominent  business  man  that  it  has  placed  upon 
its  statute  books  an  Anti-Trust  Act  in  which  at  least  some  con- 
sideration has  been  shown  for  the  possible  and  probable  effect 
of  such  legislation  on  the  business  development  and  interests  of 
the  country.  The  law  is  designed  not  to  destroy  big  business,  nor 
to  cut  it  up  into  a  million  small  units,  such,  for  example,  as 
prevail  among  the  coolie  classes  in  China  and  which  furnish  em- 
ployment to  nobody,  but  prohibit  business  combinations  whose 
purpose  is  to  restrain  trade  at  the  expense  of  the  public,  or,  in 
other  words,  create  monopolies  which  work  hardship  on  the 
community. 

The  law  as  explained  to  us  is  clear  and  explicit,  so  that  any 
one  who  can  read  can  understand  that  combinations  which  tend 

15 


lo  expand  rather  than  restrain  trade,  and  which  do  not  monopo- 
lize or  attempt  to  monopolize,  are  not  infractions  of  the  law. 

We  heard  several  severe  criticisms  of  the  chaotic  condition 
into  which  the  Sherman  Act  has  thrown  the  business  interests 
of  the  United  States  and  there  is  a  strong  feeling  extant  through- 
out Australia  against  anti-trust  legislation  so  drastic  in  character. 

Crownlands. 

It  is  the  avowed  purpose  of  the  Commonwealth  and  several 
State  Governments  eventually  to  own  all  the  land.     All  that  they 
do  not  now  own  is  subject  to  the  exercise  of  the  right  of  eminent 
domain  at  any  time  the  Government  wants  it  for  dividing  into 
smaller  tracts.     The  price  to  be  paid  for  it  will  be  fixed  by  the 
Government's  own  appraisers.     Land  so  acquired  by  the  State 
will  not  be  resold,  but  will  be  parcelled  out  under  perpetual 
leaseholds,  "with  a  string  tied  to  the  lease."     The  terms  and  con- 
ditions upon  which  settlers  can  obtain  these  leaseholds  vary  more 
or  less  in  the  different  States.     In  New  South  Wales,  for  ex- 
ample, we  were  informed  by  a  high  State  official,  the  land  is 
classified  into  three  grades ;  first,  second  and  third  class,  and  is 
leased  to  settlers  in  blocks  of  40  to  60  acres  first  class,  460  acres 
second  class,  and  1350  acres  third  class.     The  terms  of  the  lease 
provide  how  the  land  shall  be  utilized,  and  otherwise  restrict  the 
privileges  of  the  lessee  so  that  in  reality  he  is  but  little  else  than 
a  servant  of  the  State,  and  he  quite  naturally  has  no  heart  to 
improve  land  which  he  never  can  own  and  from  which,  if  he 
fails  to  live  up  to  the  strict  requirements  of  the  lease  to  the  satis- 
faction of  the  State  land  inspector,  he  may  be  ousted  at  any 
time.     Two   per   cent    of   the   appraised   value   of   the   land   is 
charged  for  rent,  subject  to  a  new  valuation  at  the  end  of  the 
first  five  years  and  every  20  or  25  years  thereafter,  a  deposit  of 
£  100  ($486)  being  required  when  the  lease  is  executed. 

During  the  first  year  the  Government  will  loan  the  lessee 
£200  in  installments  as  improvements  are  made,  such  as  build- 
ing a  house  and  fences.  Then  at  the  end  of  the  first  year,  and 
thereafter  for  a  period  of  five  years,  further  loans  will  be  made 
to  the  extent  of  three-fourths  the  cost  of  all  the  improvements 
put  upon  the  land.  The  Government  reserves  the  right  to,  at  the 
end  of  the  fifth  year  and  at  any  time  thereafter,  resume  owner- 
ship of  the  land  at  its  then  appraised  value,  including  improve- 
ments. Title  to  the  land  never  passes  from  the  State.  In 
Queensland,  we  were  told,  large  tracts  of  land  are  available  to 
leasehold  on  similar  conditions  at  a  rental  of  three  cents  per  acre, 
per  annum,  and  are  allotted  by  ballot. 

16 


Large  fortunes  have  been  made  in  Australia  and  New  Zea- 
land at  stock  raising,  and  as  there  are  millions  of  acres  of  land 
in  the  interior  not  accessible  by  railroads,  there  are  still 
numerous  occupiers  of  large  tracts  on  which  the  business  is  car- 
ried on  extensively  and  on  which  there  are  100,000  to  200,000 
sheep  on  a  single  tract.  But  these  will,  in  time,  as  railroads 
penetrate  them  and  they  can  be  utilized  for  closer  se^tlem^nt 
purposes,  be  resumed  by  the  State  and  divided  into  smaller 
sections.  This,  however,  will  be  a  slow  process  at  the  present 
ratio  of  increase  in  population,  which  is  principally  settling  in 
the  cities. 

Refrigeration  System— Its  Effect. 

Australia  is  one  of  the  richest  countries  in  the  world.  Its 
soil  and  its  mountains  contain  treasures  which  should  attract 
people  from  all  parts  of  the  globe.  Its  climate,  varying  from 
110°  to  30°  admits  of  outdoor  work  all  the  year  round,  and 
the  wonder  is,  how  is  it  that,  during  a  century  and  a  quarter  of 
existence,  it  has  acquired  a  population  of  less  than  five  million 
souls.  True  it  is,  that  prior  to  the  introduction  of.  the  refrigera- 
tion system  of  transporting  meats  and  other  perishable  products 
the  growth  of  this  fertile  country  was  necessarily  slow,  because, 
being  many  thousands  of  miles  from  its  nearest  Anglo-Saxon 
neighbor  and  a  thousand  miles  or  more  from  any  neighbor,  it 
had  only  its  home  market  for  its  perishable  products,  consist- 
ing chiefly  of  mutton,  beef  and  farm  produce,  consequently, 
carcasses  of  beef  and  mutton  were  boiled  down  for  their  tallow. 
Meat  supply  being  greatly  in  excess  of  demand,  profits  from 
sheep  and  cattle  raising  were  confined  principally  to  wool,  pelts 
and  hides. 

The  same  conditions  prevailed  in  New  Zealand.  A  stock 
raiser  who  settled*  there  in  1873  informed  us  that,  prior  to  the 
introduction  of  the  process  for  shipping  frozen  meats  when  local 
consumption  was  satisfied,  everything  had  to  be  boiled  down  for 
tallow ;  that  before  the  freezing  companies  could  take  sheep  or 
cattle  he  got  $1.02  a  head  for  a  very  nice  lot  of  ewes,  while 
cattle  were  as  low  as  $10.60  for  cow  and  calf :  that  now  ordinary 
ewes  are  worth  $3.70  to  $5.  and  special  as  high  as  $7.50  a  head, 
while  "forward"  bullocks  are  worth  as  much  as  $40  to  $60  a 
head,  and  lambs  $4.50  to  $5  each.  Another  large  stock  raiser 
in  Australia  informed  us  that,  before  the  opening  up  of  foreign 
markets  for  Australian  meats  through  the  frozen  meat  system 
of  transportation,  he  had  himself  peddled  from  door  to  door 
hind  quarters  of  mutton  which  he  sold  at  12  to  18  cents  each. 

The   first   shipment   of   frozen   meat   was   dispatched    from 


Dunedin,  N.  Z.,  February  15,  1883,  and  that  incident  marked 
the  beginning  of  a  phenomenal  period  of  prosperity  throughout 
all  Australasia  and  the  making  of  large  fortunes  by  many  men 
who  were  alert  in  taking  advantage  of  the  opportunities  which 
lay  in  their  way.  What,  then,  is  wrong  with  Australasia  ? 

Banking  Institutions. 

In  traveling  through  Australasia,  one  thing  that  impressed 
us  greatly  was  the  large  number  of  banking  institutions  and  the 
magnitude  of  many  of  them.  In  the  principal  business  sections 
of  the  city  there  are  banks,  banks,  everywhere  banks,  each  with 
its  branches  in  different  sections  of  the  city.  Then  when  you  go 
into  the  country  districts  you  will  find  in  every  little  hamlet 
branch  banks  and  you  are  filled  with  wonder  as  to  how  they  all 
exist  and  what  supports  them,  but  upon  inquiry  you  will  be  in- 
formed that  they  are  backed  principally  by  London  and  local 
capital.  That  so  many  banking  institutions  not  only  exist  but 
thrive  is  evidence  of  the  great  wealth  producing  countries  these 
are  and,  when  measured  by  population,  of  the  vast  amount  of 
business  which  is  transacted  through  these  banks. 

Statistics  for  1913  show  the  total  liabilities  of  check  paying 
banks  to  be  £138,583,000,  and  assets  £164,555,000.  They  also 
show  that  in  the  savings  banks — including  the  Commonwealth 
bank — there  were  1,961,000  depositors,  with  total  deposits 
amounting  to  £75,463,000,  per  depositor  £38  95.  7d.,  and  per 
head  of  population  £15  143.  4d.  Of  these  the  Commonwealth 
bank  had  84,000  depositors  with  £2,694,000  deposits,  the  average 
per  depositor  being  £32  45.  iod.,  and  us.  3d.  per  head  of  popu- 
lation. 

One  handicap  to  American  business  in  Australasia  is  the 
lack  of  American  banking  facilities.  As  an'  example  of  the 
appreciation  of  American  money,  we  handed  a  banker,  in  one  of 
the  large  Australian  banks,  a  United  States  twenty-dollar  gold 
certificate  and  asked  him  what  he  would  give  us  for  it  in  current 
money.  His  reply  was  that  the  only  use  he  could  make  of  it 
would  be  to  consign  it  to  the  waste  basket  or  keep  it  as  a 
souvenir.  Show  a  piece  of  United  States  money  to  a  business 
man  in  Australasia  and  he  will  look  at  it  curiously  and,  in  nine 
cases  out  of  ten,  ask  what  it  is.  And  this  in  face  of  the  fact  that 
trade  with  the  United  States  runs  up  into  many  millions  of 
dollars  annually.  With  respect  to  this  phase  of  business  inter- 
course between  these  countries,  we  were  led  to  the  conclusion 
that  if  United  States  banking  institutions  were  established  in 
the  principal  cities  of  Australasia,  United  States  money  could 

18 


be  made  a  medium  of  exchange  at  practically  its  home  value. 
There  appeared  to  us  to  be  good  room  for  such  banks  in  both 
Australia  and  New  Zealand  notwithstanding  all  that  may  be 
said  about  their  Socialistic  tendencies  and  unfavorable  industrial 
conditions. 

A  Loose  Screw. 

The  mineral  wealth  of  Australia  alone  is  enormous.  In 
1912  the  value  of  its  mineral  products  was  £25,629,000  sterling, 
or,  approximately,  $124,556,940,  covering  the  items  of  gold, 
silver,  lead,  zinc,  tin,  copper,  pig  iron,  coal  and  precious  stones. 
Its  coal  fields  are  practically  inexhaustible  and  we  were  told  by 
good  authority  that  veins  from  20  to  30  feet  thick  are  not  un- 
common. No  finer  fruits  and  vegetables  can  be  raised  any- 
where than  are  grown  in  Australasia,  although  they  are  both 
very  high  in  price. 

In  a  country  where  nature  has  been  so  generous  one  would 
naturally  expect  to  find  everybody  happy  and  contented  and 
aglow  with  enthusiasm  for  the  land  in  which  such  opportunities 
abound,  but  not  so.  Instead  of  a  land  full  of  life  and  energy 
resting  in  the  very  bosom  of  hope  and  advancement,  and  ex- 
panding by  leaps  and  bounds  in  individual  wealth  and  freedom, 
on  every  side  one  hears  the  wail  of  discontent.  The  "closer 
settlement"  victim  is  disgruntled  because  he  is  disappointed  and 
feels  that  he  has  been  deceived.  From  rich  and  poor  alike, 
except  office  holders,  a  tale  of  woe  and  faultfinding  flows  freely. 
Men  having  vested  interests  at  stake  are  alarmed  over  their 
apparent  and  threatened  insecurity.  The  attitude  of  the  office 
holder  is  apologetic,  and  the  mind  of  the  investigator  soon 
becomes  impressed  with  the  air  of  decadence  which  he  observes 
all  about  him;  that  there  is  a  screw  or  perhaps  a  number  of 
screws  loose  somewhere,  and  he  is  forced  to  agree  with  an  Eng- 
lish lady,  the  wife  of  the  manager  of  a  commercial  corporation, 
who  had  lived  eleven  years  in  Sydney,  and  who,  when  asked 
what  she  thought  of  Australia,  replied,  "I  think  it  an  ideal  coun- 
try going  wrong." 

The  nation,  like  many  individuals,  can't  stand  prosperity. 
Its  policy  is  very  largely  dictated  by  an  influence  that  is  bent  on 
the  horizontal  levelling  of  wealth  and  caste.  Its  progress  is  in 
the  direction  of  stagnation,  and  each  year  sees  it  nearer  a  purely 
Socialistic  country. 

The  People  of  Australasia. 

Some  writers  in  commenting  on  the  people  of  Australasia 
and  their  customs  and  manners  have,  we  think,  been  very  unfair 

19 


in  their  criticisms.  The  unkind  manner  in  which  they  have 
spoken  of  them  would  lead  their  readers,  who  have  not  come 
in  personal  contact  with  these  people,  to  think  that  they  are  a 
coarse,  ill-bred  and  uneducated  class  of  humanity  in  need  of 
missionaries  to  carry  to  them  the  lamp  of  civilization,  and  the 
cup  of  Christianity.  They  have  ridiculed  their  dialect,  their 
food  and  the  manner  in  which  they  cook  and  eat  it.  It  has 
been  said  that  in  hot  weather,  meat  hanging  in  front  of  butcher 
shops  has  been  so  covered  with  flies  that  one  could  not  tell 
whether  it  was  beef  or  mutton,  and  other  equally  misleading 
and  apparently  prejudicial  statements  have  been  put  into  print. 
Our  experience  having  been  along  opposite  lines  we  feel  that 
we  should  speak  of  these  things  as  we  found  them  and  by  so 
doing  counteract,  in  part  at  least,  the  unfavorable  impressions, 
which  such  unfair  statements  have  created. 

The  population  of  these  countries  is  made  up  principally 
of  English,  Scotch  and  native-borns,  with  a  small  percentage 
of  Americans,  Germans  and  others.  During  our  stay  of  one 
month  in  New  Zealand  and  two  and  a  half  months  in  Australia 
we  mingled  freely  with  these  people  at  the  hotels,  the  clubs, 
their  places  of  business,  in  the  churches,  in  Government  offices 
and  in  their  homes,  and  not  in  a  single  instance  would  we  be 
warranted  in  subscribing  to  the  criticisms  above  referred  to. 
On  the  other  hand,  we  have  only  praise  and  commendation  to 
offer  in  exchange  for  the  hospitable  and  courteous  manner  in 
which  we  were  everywhere  received  and  treated.  We  found 
that,  after  all,  there  is  not  very  much  difference  between  these 
people  and  those  of  the  United  States,  and  for  whom  they  enter- 
tain the  most  friendly  feeling  and  high  esteem.  True,  many  of 
them,  while  writing  their  words  correctly,  speak  a  dialect  which 
to  one  not  accustomed  to  it  is  a  little  difficult  to  under- 
stand. For  example,  in  addition  to  dropping  the  letter  "h" 
from  words  in  which  it  belongs  and  adding  it  where  it  does  not 
belong,  if  they  want  to  know  if  you  are  going  to  the  railway 
station  they  will  ask  you  if  you  are  going  to  the  rile-wie  stition ;: 
a  thing  sold  has  been  sowl'd.  If  they  want  to  scold  they  scowld. 
If  a  newsboy  wants  to  sell  you  a  paper,  he  cries  out  "piper, 
Mister."  A  maid  is  a  mide,  ale  is  ile,  and  sale,  sile.  A  girl 
clerk — clark — in  a  bookstore,  when  asked  "Where  is  the  mana- 
ger?" replied,  "  'E's  hoff  on  'is  'alf  'olidie."  The  Standard  Oil 
Company  is  called  the  Standard  Ile  Company,  etc.,  etc.  But 
all  this  does  not  indicate  that  these  people  are  what  they  have- 
been,  painted  as  being,  nor  that  they  are  below  the  standard  of 
other  English-speaking  nations  in  culture  and  refinement. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  in  Sydney,  Auckland,  and  Melbourne 

20 


there  are  more  and  larger  bookstores  than  in  any  cities  of  equal 
size  that  we  know  of,  and  on  every  hand  one  is  impressed  with 
the  vast  amount  of  substantial  reading  these  people  indulge  in. 
They  are  also  a  great  people  for  outdoor  exercise  and  manly 
sports.  On  each  of  their  many  holidays  and  half  holidays  they 
can  be  seen  by  the  thousands  making  for  the  different  resorts 
and  places  of  sport.  We  found  them  to  be  polite,  courteous  to 
a  fault,  and  whatever  others  may  say  about  them  or  whatever 
may  be  our  opinions  of  their  Governmental  policies  and  the 
trend  toward  State  Socialism,  we  shall  always  remember  them 
as  a  kind-hearted,  praiseworthy  and  Sabbath  respecting  people,  we 
shall  ever  carry  pleasant  recollections  of  the  kind  and  generous 
treatment  we  received  at  the  hands  of  all  those  with  whom  we 
came  in  contact,  as  well  as  the  numerous  pleasant  acquaintances 
we  made  and  left  in  Australasia. 

We  did  not  observe  them  to  be  indifferent  to  flies  or  any 
other  pests,  nor  did  we  see  any  meat  hanging  in  front  of  butcher 
shops,  so  covered  with  flies  that  we  couldn't  tell  what  kind  of 
meat  it  was.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  we  did  see  in 
Wellington,  Melbourne  and  Sydney  a  number  of  the  finest  and 
neatest  kept  meat  markets  that  we  have  ever  seen.  Let  the 
things  which  belong  to  Csesar  be  rendered  unto  Caesar.  The 
people  in  the  cities  of  Australasia  are  provided  with  more  and 
better  public  parks  and  conveniences  than  will  be  found  in  our 
American  cities.  The  matter  of  "convenience  stations"  for  both 
men  and  women  has  been  looked  after  in  a  creditable  manner, 
and  the  officials  of  our  municipalities  would  do  well  to  pattern 
after  the  example  set  by  these  people,  in  whom  some  critics  are 
so  prone  to  see  no  good.  These  convenience  stations  are  located 
a  few  squares  apart,  constructed  under  ground  with  tile  floors 
and  walls,  have  an  attendant  in  charge  and  are  kept  as  clean 
and  sanitary  as  are  the  lavatories  in  many  of  our  leading  hotels. 
There  is  no  charge  for  the  use  of  urinals,  but  the  use  of  closets 
is  subject  to  a  charge  of  one  penny. 

Of  course,  there  is  in  Australasia,  as  in  all  other  countries, 
a  large  element  of  natural  born  discontents  and  ne'er-do-wells 
who,  in  the  present  instance,  constitute  the  largest  portion  of  the 
organized  group  and  in  whose  particular  interest  the  Govern- 
ment appears  to  be  administered,  but,  in  measuring  up  the  people, 
it  would  not  be  fair  to  single  out  this  class  as  a  basis  of  standardi- 
zation of  the  whole.  If  this  should  be  done  in  our  country  a 
sorry  picture  could  be  painted  of  our  standard  of  civilization. 

The  tea  drinking  habit  has  a  firm  grip  on  the  people  of 
Australasia.  With  them  it  is  tea  before  breakfast,  tea  at  break- 
fast, tea  before  and  after  luncheon  and  tea  before  bedtime. 

21 


Everybody  drinks  tea.  and  drops  business  and  pleasure  at  regular 
intervals  for  tea — strong  tea.  The  wonder  of  it  is  that  they  hold 
up,  physically,  under  the  influence  of  so  much  strong  tea. 

Industrial  Conditions. 

Australia  and  New  Zealand  are  sister  countries,  some  1,200 
or  1,300  miles  distant  from  each  other,  and,  together,  are  known 
as  Australasia.  They  are  noted  the  world  over  for  their  experi- 
mental tendencies  in  legislation.  New  Zealand,  having  blazed 
the  way  and  set  the  pace  for  Australia  to  follow,  apparently  has 
tired  of  some,  at  least,  of  its  legislative  experiments,  a  reaction 
already  having  set  in,  but  Australia  appears  to  be  plodding  along 
the  lines  of  socialistic  labor  legislation  in  face  of  the  fact  that  its 
strenuous  fight  with  the  economic  principle  of  the  law  of  supply 
and  demand  has  proved  a  dismal  failure  and  the  industrial  con- 
ditions of  the  country  are  in  a  state  of  chaos. 

Many  flowery  pictures  have  been  painted  in  magazines  and 
newspapers  throughout  the  United  States,  by  writers  having 
theoretical  but  no  practical  knowledge  of  the  industrial  question, 
either  in  their  own  or  other  countries,  in  which  Australasia  has 
been  credited  with  having  solved  the  labor  problem  through  con- 
ciliation, arbitration  and  Wages  Boards  legislation,  whereby 
it  has  been  transformed  into  "The  Land  of  No  Strikes," 
"Labor's  Utopia,"  and  "The  Workingman's  Paradise,"  where 
industrial  peace  was  complete,  everybody  contented  and  happy, 
and  the  millennium  at  hand.  But  in  striking  contrast  to 
these  beautiful  and  misleading  pictures  the  fact  remains  that 
Australasia  is  a  hotbed  of  strikes,  socialistic  agitation,  syndicalism 
and  discontent,  all  of  which  is,  at  the  present  time,  more  acute 
than  ever  before. 

A  complete  detailed  account  of  our  investigations  into 
labor  legislation  and  conditions  in  Australasia,  and  upon  which 
our  conclusions  are  based,  would  make  a  volume  unnecessarily 
large  for  the  practical  purposes  of  our  report.  We  shall  not, 
therefore,  attempt  to  detail  all  that  came  to  our  notice  with 
reference  to  strikes  and  their  accompanying  annoyances,  open 
antagonism  to  and  ignoring  of  laws  placed  upon  the  statute 
books  by  labor's  own  representatives,  and  the  deplorable  indus- 
trial conditions  which  prevail  throughout  the  Dominion  of  New 
Zealand  and  the  Commonwealth  of  Australia. 

Moreover,  that  we  may  not  be  charged  with  bias  or  that 
we  have  judged  the  situation  from  a  prejudiced  viewpoint,  we 
shall  use*  the  people  themselves  as  our  authority  and  quote  some- 
what liberally  from  newspapers  and  periodicals,  and  the  utter- 

22 


ances  of  public  men  as  well  as  men  in  various  walks  of  life  with 
whom  we  conversed.  From  a  newspaper  standpoint,  some  idea 
can  be  formed  of  industrial  conditions  prevailing  in  Australasia. 
In  three  months'  time  we  cut  from  19  different  daily  papers  refer- 
ences to  labor  disputes,  Wages  Boards  awards,  strikes,  etc., 
represented  by  editorials  and  news  items,  covering  147  pages  of 
letter  size  paper,  three  columns  in  width,  and  this,  it  should  be  re- 
membered, refers  solely  to  communities  aggregating  a  total 
population  of  5,785,000  souls.  The  record  could  hardly  be 
matched  in  the  whole  United  States  with  its  100,000,000  people, 
and  where  no  pretense  is  made  of  having  solved  the  labor  prob- 
lem by  legislation. 

The  following  full  quotations  and  excerpts  from  the  daily 
press  of  the  several  cities  visited  will  serve  as  an  example  of 
many  others.  Our  reason  for  quoting  as  extensively  as  we  have 
done,  being  for  the  purpose  of  conveying  to  your  minds,  through 
this  means,  the  gravity  of  industrial  conditions  in  Australasia. 

FROM  THE  SIDNEY  MORNING  HERALD— 1914. 
UNION  PICKETS. 

AN  EARLY   MORNING  MARCH.      INCIDENT  OF  A  FARM. 

Coolamon,  Saturday. 

March  2. — The  rural  workers  on  strike  at  Coolamon  varied  the 
monotony  of  camp  life  on  Thursday  morning  by  a  march  of  ten  miles 
before  dawn  to  Kittegora,  where  on  the  farm  of  Mr.  Archibald  Robert- 
son, a  chaffcutter,  owned  by  Mr.  P.  Maloney,  was  at  work  on  some  stacks 
of  hay.  The  enginedriver  was  getting  up  steam;  the  other  men  had  not 
got  out  of  their  beds.  Mr.  Maloney  had  not  arrived.  The  enginedriver, 
who  had  no  spanner  handy,  was  jostled  off  the  engine.  The  others  were 
rushed  out  of  bed,  and  ordered  to  cease  work  and  join  the  camp,  where 
they  were  told  they  would  be  provided  for. 

"But  what  about  our  wives?"  one  asked. 

"Send  them  out  to  work,"  was  the  reply. 

As  soon  as  Mr.  Robertson  was  informed  of  the  raid  he  galloped 
down,  and  the  strikers,  40  in  number,  made  off,  but  took  the  indispensable 
workers  of  the  team  with  them. 

The  men  were  all  back  on  Friday,  but  insisted,  as  a  condition  of 
their  return,  that  they  should  have  police  protection. 

A  constable  is  now  in  constant  attendance.  Most  of  the  townspeople 
think  it  will  be  a  lucky  day  when  the  strike  camp  is  dispersed 

In  the  following  editorial  the  writer  has  touched  a  sentiment 
which  finds  expression  with  the  entire  business  interests,  not 
only  of  New  South  Wales  but  of  all  of  Australasia : 

RECURRING  STRIKES. 

DISGUSTED    MINEOWNER.      THREATENS   TO  CLOSE   DOWN. 

Kurri  Kurri,  Sunday. 

March  2. — Mr.  D.  Watson's  visit  to  Pelaw  Main  miners'  meeting 
resulted  in  the  men  returning  to  work,  and  the  colliery  has  been  working 
since. 

Mr.  Watson  told  the  men  they  were  very  foolish  in  stopping  the  pit 

23 


so  frequently  for  trivial  matters;  he  had  almost  effected  a  settlement  of 
the  dispute  with  Messrs.  Brown  when  the  men  stopped  work. 

Mr.  John  Brown  spoke  forcibly,  and  said  if  the  men  did  not  alter 
their  tactics  he  would  close  Pelaw  Main  Colliery  down. 

The  men  carried  a  motion  to  the  effect  that  they  would  not  stop  the 
pit  again  before  allowing  the  Federation's  executive  an  opportunity  of 
remedying  the  grievances.  The  matter  in  dispute  and  the  paying  of  the 
costs  of  the  recent  prosecution  of  the  machine  men  will  be  discussed  by 
Afr.  Watson  and  Mr.  John  Brown  on  Tuesday. 

IRON  TRADES. 
NINE  THOUSAND  MEN  OUT.    AWAITING  THE  COURT. 

March  2. — There  are  now  over  9,000  men  involved  in  the  iron  trades' 
dispute.  There  were  no  developments  of  any  kind  on  Saturday.  Both 
employers  and  employees  are  anxiously  waiting.  Mr.  Justice  Heydon's 
decision  with  regard  to  the  reopening  of  the  wages  board  award  judg- 
ment is  expected  to  be  delivered  today. 

Certain  shops  have  been  granted  exemptions  by  the  defence  com- 
mittee, and  work  at  them  is  proceeding  smoothly.  Other  employers  are 
ready  to  pay  the  rates  asked  by  the  men,  but  so  far  the  committee  ap- 
pointed to  deal  with  them  have  not  submitted  their  reports  to  the  defence 
committee.  A  meeting  of  this  committee  is  to  be  held  this  afternoon  at 
3.30,  when  it  is  expected  the  decision  of  the  court  will  be  known.  The 
future  policy  of  the  committee  will  then  be  discussed. 

"LAZY  STRIKE"   OFF. 

WHARFMEN  TO  RESUME.    RESULT  OF  THE  BALLOT. 

March  2. — The  result  of  the  ballot  taken  amongst  Sydney  wharf- 
labourers  on  the  question  of  whether  overtime  should  be  worked,  pending 
the  settlement  of  all  the  conditions  of  the  industry  by  the  Federal  Arbi- 
tration Court  was  announced  last  night  by  Mr.  J.  Woods,  the  local 
secretary.  Very  great  interest  was  manifested  in  the  matter  by  the 
wharf-labourers  themselves,  and  this  is  demonstrated  by  the  fact  that 
2>33!  votes  were  recorded,  out  of  which  the  decision  to  work  overtime 
as  usual,  pending  the  constitutional  settlement  of  the  grievances,  secured 
a  majority  of  1,023. 

MEAT  WAR. 

A  GLOOMY  OUTLOOK.    NO  SETTLEMENT.    MEN  WANT  TO  COMPROMISE. 
EMPLOYERS'  REPLY.    AWARD  MUST  BE  OBEYED. 

March  2. — Proposals  by  the  Government  for  a  settlement  of  the 
meat  strike  have  been  placed  before  employers  and  employees. 

The  employees  are  prepared  to  come  to  terms,  but  the  employers 
are  unyielding. 

Representatives  of  the  employers  are  to  meet  the  Attorney-General, 
Mr.  D.  R.  Hall,  at  11  A.  M.  today. 

The  suggested  terms  of  settlement  are  an  advance  of  5s-  Per  week 
and  49H  hours. 

These  terms  were  to  be  embodied  in  a  wages  board  award,  "by 
consent."  Friday  night's  meeting  of  the  employers  was  against  accept- 
ance of  the  compromise. 

The  Premier,  however,  was  hopeful  last  night  that  the  parties  might 
come  to  an  understanding. 

He  had  not  any  direct  intimation  that  the  proposed  basis  of  settle- 
ment had  been  turned  down. 

It  was  reported  last  night  that  the  employers  would  today  ask  the 
Government  for  assistance  in  having  cold-storage  meat  removed.  Killing 
was  continued  at  Glebe  Island  on  Saturday. 

24 


The  meat  was  rushed  for  at  the  depots  and  the  union  shops,  which 
were  unable  to  meet  the  demand. 

Attention  is  especially  directed  to  the  following  editorial: 

LABOUR  AND  CAPITAL. 

March  2. — The  partnership  of  capital  and  labour  is  indissoluble. 
Hence  if  the  warring  elements,  which  are  now  engaged  not  only  in 
Australia  but  all  over  the  world,  do  not  arrive  at  a  peaceful  means  of 
settling  the  way  in  which  the  profits  of  the  partnership  are  to  be  divided 
then  the  road  to  industrial  bankruptcy  will  be  entered.  To  within  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century  the  power  of  capital  was  so  great,  or,  rather, 
it  would  be  more  correct  to  say  that  the  forces  of  labour  were  so  weak, 
that  capital  assumed  the  fiction  that  there  was  no  partnership  in  the 
industrial  life,  and  that  capital  was  the  overlord,  giving  labour  just  the 
reward  it  pleased.  Since  then  the  strength  of  organized  labour  has  in- 
creased so  greatly,  while  capital  has  gained  little  from  its  own  organiza- 
tion, that  labour  has  forced  a  more  equitable  division  of  the  profits. 
In  Australia,  following  New  Zealand's  lead,  in  order  to  do  away  with 
strikes,  which  can  never  be  but  a  rough-and-ready  method  of  settling 
quarrels,  we  have  established  legal  tribunals  to  assess  the  division  of  the 
profits.  Going  all  through  the  different  judgments,  the  main  idea  seems 
to  run  that  the  division  shall  be  such  as  will  in  comparison  with  capital's 
profits,  give  the  utmost  return  to  labour  possible,  the  skill  of  the  worker 
and  the  arduousness  of  the  labour  having  due  weight  given  to  them. 
And  there  is  the  provision  that  in  any  case,  whether  capital  gets  a  fair 
proportion  or  not,  the  profit  of  labour  must  be  such  as  will  keep  a  man 
and  his  wife  and  family  in  ordinary  comfort.  When  capital  cannot  give 
such  a  profit  to  labour,  then  it  withdraws  from  the  particular  class  of 
business.  An  example  was  the  closing  down  of  the  local  china  works 
some  months  ago.  Labour  is  not  yet  disciplined  to  the  law.  The  clangour 
and  confusion  of  war  still  appeal  to  it  because  the  excitement  impresses, 
while  the  calmness  of  legal  proceedings  leaves  unruffled  the  mind  of  the 
worker,  and  a  victory  so  won  leaves  no  abiding  impression.  The  law 
will  never  appeal  with  sufficient  force  to  labour  until  labour  learns  that 
its  losses  by  strike,  now  that  the  law  is  empowered  to  settle  disputes  with 
capital,  although  not  felt,  perhaps,  for  months  afterwards,  far  outweigh 
any  gains  made.  A  strike  means  a  loss  to  the  whole  community.  Labour  loses 
its  wages,  capital  loses  its  interest.  By  just  so  much  as  the  wages  and  the 
interest  amount  to  will  the  capital  available  for  starting  new  enterprises 
or  extending  established  works  be  diminished.  Labour  believes  that  the 
production  is  merely  postponed,  and  that  leeway  will  be  caught  up. 
That  is  not  so.  The  production  of  the  days  of  strike  is  lost  forever ; 
it  can  never  be  regained.  Not  alone  is  the  amount  of  new  capital  lower 
than  it  would  otherwise  be  for  the  extension  of  industry,  but  capital  takes 
less  risks,  it  makes  more  provision  for  contingencies,  which  means  that 
the  amount  of  idle  capital  is  increased  beyond  what  would  normally  be 
the  case.  Hence  the  supply  of  capital  for  new  enterprises  is  further 
diminished.  It  is  by  the  establishment  of  new  enterprises  and  the  exten- 
sion of  present  productive  works  that  labour  can  hope  to  keep  up  em- 
ployment. If  production  stands  still  the  man  who  works  for  wages  or 
salary  is  the  first  to  suffer,  because  the  supply  of  labour  is  ever  increas- 
ing. The  amount  of  work  offering  may  be  the  same,  but  there  are  more 
hands  to  do  it.  Consequently  the  number  of  days  worked  by  each 
individual  is  fewer.  Hence,  every  worker  has  a  direct  interest  in  the 
amount  of  capital  produced.  When  he  understands  that  fact  he  will  not 
be  so  ready  to  engage  in  a  strike  as  he  is  now.  To  strike  was  necessary 
in  past  days.  It  was  the  only  way  in  many  cases  that  justice  could  be 
obtained.  In  Australia  today  the  law  can  give  more  justice  than  ever 
war  wrought. 

25 


CRISIS  IN  THE  IRON  TRADE. 
EMPLOYERS  REJECT  PROPOSALS.    MEN  MUST  RESUME. 

March  4. — A  meeting  of  the  Iron  Trade  Employers'  Association  was 
held  yesterday  afternoon  in  the  Challis  House. 

Subsequently  Mr.  J.  P.  Franki,  general  manager  of  Mort's  Dock 
and  Engineering  Company,  Limited,  made  the  following  statement  on 
behalf  of  the  employers: 

"We  had  nothing  before  us  from  the  men,  but  we  had  a  verbal 
communication  from  the  Minister.  The  Under-Secretary,  on  behalf  of 
the  Minister,  desired  to  know  whether  the  Iron  Trade  Employers'  Asso- 
ciation would  meet  the  men  in  conference. 

"Our  reply  to  the  request  from  the  department,"  continued  Mr. 
Franki,  "was  to  the  effect  that,  after  the  men  return  to  work,  this  asso- 
ciation will  consider  the  suggestion.  It  is  an  olive  branch  we  are  holding 
out." 

RURAL  STRIKERS. 

ATTACK   A   FARM.      DRIVE   NON-UNIONISTS    BEFORE   THEM. 

Wagora,  Tuesday. 

March  4. — At  the  end  of  last  week  about  40  members  of  the  Rural 
Workers'  Union  organised  a  raid  on  Corney's  chaffcutter  at  Marrar. 

According  to  reports  to  hand  they  arrived  in  a  body  at  the  camp, 
about  three  miles  out  of  Marrar,  just  before  daylight  on  Friday,  when 
the  men  working  on  the  plant  were  still  asleep.  It  is  alleged  that  with 
hostile  demonstrations,  coarse  and  abusive  language,  they  ordered  the 
non-union  workers  to  get  out  of  bed  and  leave.  The  latter  were  some- 
what slow  to  respond,  being  only  partly  awake. 

They  were  told  that  if  they  did  not  get  out  they  would  be  burnt 
out.  As  the  men  were  outnumbered  by  three  to  one  by  the  strikers  they 
yielded  to  intimidation,  and  were  marched  into  town  by  the  strikers. 

On  the  Monday,  however,  the  farmers  took  a  hand  in  the  matter, 
and  it  was  agreed  that  the  whistle  should  be  blown  at  the  camp  for  the 
men  to  resume  work.  On  Monday  morning  this  was  done.  But  although 
the  men  were  quite  satisfied  with  their  positions  and  even  eager  to  return 
to  work  they  were  afraid  to  do  so  owing  to  threats  of  the  strikers. 
At  this  stage  of  the  proceedings  a  party  of  about  a  score  of  stalwart 
farmers  was  organised,  and  they  arrived  on  the  scene,  determined,  if 
necessary,  to  give  the  strikers  a  lesson.  Although  there  were  about  40  of 
the  strikers  present  the  sight  of"  20  resolute  farmers  determined  to  pro- 
tect the  non-unionists  overawed  the  strikers,  their  courage  having  evi- 
dently evaporated. 

The  strikers  having  been  driven  off  the  non-unionists  were  escorted 
back  to  work,  and  cutting  was  again  resumed.  Yesterday  all  sorts  of 
threats  were  hurled  at  them. 

A  leading  farmer,  referring  to  the  situation,  expressed  the  opinion, 
that  there  will  be  bloodshed  if  the  strikers  do  not  change  their  tactics. 

THE  CRISIS. 

March  4.— The  master  butchers  have  decided  that  every  butcher's 
shop  in  Sydney  shall  be  open  on  Thursday  afternoon  next.  There  is 
no  gainsaying  the  serious  nature  of  this  decision.  If  it  involves  a  fight, 
it  means  a  fight  to  the  finish,  but  we  do  not  believe  that  the  public  in 
general  will  regret  that  decision.  When  a  handful  of  Sydney  workers 
decide  to  flout  the  legal  means  of  redress  which  the  present  Government 
has  given  them,  and  seek  their  own  ends  by  holding  the  whole  pastoral 
industry  of  the  State— its  chief  and  greatest  industry— by  the  throat,  it  is 
time  to  settle  once  and  for  all  whether  the  country  will  tolerate  this 
procedure.  And  if  there  is  to  be  a  fight  the  next  point  of  interest  is, 
What  attitude  will  the  Government  take?  The  statement  made  by 

26 


Mr.  Hplman  in  Parliament  last  night  was  too  vague  to  give  any  certain 
indication  of  the  Government's  intentions.  But  if  one  consideration 
more  than  any  other  drove  the  employers  to  their  decision  it  was  the 
hint  which,  in  spite  of  all  denials,  they  say  was  obviously  contained  in  the 
Premier's  language  to  them,  that  if  they  did  not  give  way  their  industry 
would  be  nationalised.  When  employers,  who  are  carrying  on  their 
business  in  accordance  with  the  conditions  specially  laid  down  by  the 
authority  of  the  State,  are  confronted  by  their  employees  with  demands 
for  different  conditions;  when  an  offer  first  of  improved  conditions,  and 
afterwards  of  a  settlement  by  the  body  specially  established  by  a  law  of 
the  present  Government  to  settle  these  differences  has  been  uncondition- 
ally refused;  and  when  the  Government,  whose  own  law  is  being  defied 
by  the  employees,  turns  round,  not  up  the  employees,  but  upon  the  em- 
ployers, and  tries  to  compel  them  by  hints  of  nationalisation  to  give  way, 
there  is  only  one  meaning  that  can  be  placed  upon  this  action:  That  it  is 
a  declaration  of  war  by  the  present  Government  upon  the  principle  of 
private  employment  altogether. 

It  cannot  be  a  method  enforced  upon  the  Government  in  order  to 
see  justice  done,  because  the  Government  has  itself  established  a  tribunal 
which  will  see  justice  done.  If  the  industrial  tribunal  cannot  see  justice 
done,  then  the  Government  should  never  have  established  it,  and  should 
abolish  it  now.  But  the  Government  has  never  proclaimed  any  such  inten- 
tion. Its  statements  have  always  been  precisely  in  the  opposite  direction. 
It  has  again  and  again  asserted  its  belief  in  its  arbitration  system. 
Neither  can  the  Government  action  mean  that,  although  it  believes  in 
arbitration,  it  is  unfortunately  driven  to  realise  that  arbitration  cannot 
be  applied  in  this  case  because  the  men  will  not  have  it;  and  that  it  must 
settle  the  present  deadlock  by  compelling  the  masters  because  it  cannot 
compel  the  men.  That  would  mean  that  although  the  masters  may  be 
right,  and  the  men  may  be  wrong,  the  Government  would  have  to  sup- 
port the  men,  wherever  the  right  lay,  because  that  was  the  easiest  means 
of  settling  the  deadlock  and  providing  the  public  with  its  meat  supplies. 
The  Government  cannot  openly  admit  to  a  motive  like  that.  If  it  intends 
to  take  the  side  of  the  men  in  the  struggle  which  today  appears  imminent, 
it  can  only  justify  its  action  on  one  ground,  that  it  is  opposed  to  the 
principle  of  private  enterprise  altogether;  that  if  the  worst  comes  to  the 
worst,  and  the  employees  in  any  industry  care  to  flout  the  law  with 
sufficient  persistence,  there  is  no  room  for  the  private  employer  in  New 
South  Wales.  It  is  difficult  to  give  any  other  meaning  than  this  to  the 
Premiers'  references  in  Parliament  to  the  steps  which  the  Government 
was  intending  to  take  in  the  direction  of  safeguarding  the  food  supply 
by  national  action.  If  that  is  not  the  Government's  intention,  then  it 
remains  for  it  to  maintain  the  law  which  itself  has  made,  and,  if  the 
unionists  flout  that  law  or  oppose  it,  to  give  the  butchers  full  protection 
in  carrying  on  their  business.  We  should  be  surprised  if  that  action  is 
what  Mr.  Hoiman  foreshadowed  in  his  vague  statement  in  Parliament 
last  night.  But  if  it  is,  then  his  administration  will  gain  a  most  unex- 
pected approval  from  the  people  of  this  State. 

MEAT  WAR. 
SUPPLIES  TODAY.     SOME  MEN  RESUME.     COUNTRY  LABOUR  OFFERED. 

March  5. — Though  still  unsettled,  the  meat  strike  shows  signs  of 
becoming  less  serious  to  the  public. 

There  will  be  600  shops  open  at  2  p.  M.  today  in  the  metropolitan 
area. 

The  slaughtering  will  be  done  by  the  master  butchers  for  the  present. 
But  should  the  unionists  remain  out,  there  are  indications  that  other 
labour  will  be  available. 

It  was  stated  at  the  employers'  meeting  last  night,  that  5,ooo  volun- 
teers would  come,  if  required,  from  the  country. 

27 


No  GwjrnMr 

:  rtfM, 

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...      ,.,-'       ,,         U       '    -.,'  I:.,'-.-       •     :       -:.;.,.        ,  y       r!,r       .,,         >U       '.  ..      ..-;.' 


( 

dM  nwM    M  tota  dN  proftt  eovm  -.^i  p.if  fi.r  L-*  bto 


flir 

f  nfy 

to 

19  m 


WH     'li.«f' 


t,,.'.r     I 
„_- 

ffow  tVdifiif  had  Mt  forward  tfc*  very  weak  pica  that  rtwy  ejwM  iwl 

ff  -~'<rr    t:  '    •--    I--   -  .-     ':  '       •    .'!    f-  '    'I-    -'"!'.  .....  l.:-i-.     :•      .--f. 

wa§  iaAr  protf«rat»U  If  f  h*  Gorfrimiiol  efcoit  19  do  fu  duty, 


The  member    for   Goulbor  -.:!   of   the   Minister    for  Labour 

\Mr.  EstellV  w  ho  in  :hat  the  :  ,    oui"  the  men. 

nes   said   :  .ont  by  the  Minister  was  nonseusval  and 

d  the  spirit  in  which  he  w  as  administering  his  office.     If  ever  there 

wras  a  case  in  which  the  :ed  it  was  this; 

and,  if  ever  tlu  in  which  the  Minister  for  Labour  and  the 

.1!  had  failed  in  their  duty  it  was  on  the  present  oc, 
in  not  instituting  :-.e  Minister  for  La: 

and  tried  to  obtain  c  US  from  the  masters  in  order  to  induce  the 

If  there  was 
an  Arbitration   Act  it   must  be  made  fa  I  •  «   « 

It  showed   the  present   industr  'are  and 

it   eith, 

both  sides." 

NEWSPAPER  STRIK 

\  TED. 

March    5. — The    trouble    between    members  of    the    Tyvv. 

id    the    emp!o\ers    reached    a  when    men   at   both 

.iper    ofruv-               ..:    Martin    an-!  ..    primer.- 
work  at   i   o'clock.     The  men                                      |  ks'  holiday  each  year  on 

full   pay.                                :rier   Tru:  LK  F.  last 

night,   bat   the   "Harrier   Miner"  held  out   till   m..  '.ock.   when   the 

management  of  that  paper  also  gave  way.  Mart1.  ,  ntley,  however, 
refused  to  agree  to  the  demands,  and  the  men  kc 

howe\er.  are  now  running  as  usual  The  only  inconvenience  was  the 
delay  in  issuing  one  edition  of  the  "Miner." 

NON-UNIONIST  CAN         \ 

,en  Hill,  Thursday. 

March  0. — The  A.  M.  A.  at  last  nu  :he  follow 

lution  : 

"That  thi>  -:eps  with  other  unions  on  the  1*.. 

in  approaching  ihe  Government  to  ha\e  incliuled  in  the  proposed  new 
industrial  legislation  the  power  for  any  recognised  uv.  .ils  to 

examine-   pence   cards    OM    the    mip.es.   or   am  \\here    men   arc 

empl. 

A   rew  luti  '  carried  that  rule  S^.  which  reads.  "Any  mem- 

Aviation  knowingly  working  \\iih  a  non-member,  and 
failing  to  report  same,  together  \\ith  such  non-member's  name,  within 
i-t  da\s  to  Ihe  Steward,  check  inspector,  or  .1  be  liaK 

tine    o  -    per    rule    .).    cl/.use    H."    be    strictly    enforced    during    the 

present    non-unionist    campaign. 

1  MMNSIVK  TRIBUN 

iiursday. 

March  0. — During  the  hearing  of  the  evidence  for  the  eiuplo\  ees  in 
connection    with    the   plaint    of   the    Australian     Pelegraph  phone 

nance  Union,  before    Mi     I.  -:ins   in  the 

.d    Arbitration    Court,     Mr.    Ske\\  - 

connectjon  with  \arious  departments,  and  if  boards  had  been  held  m 
regard  to  all  charges  where  the  fines  were  over  it  there  would  have 
been  iSS  Kurd*  held  throughout  the  l\Mumon\\  .  to  the 

people  of  the  Commonwealth  since  the  establishment  of  the  Act  was 
nearK 

Sruikis   ,\M>   inr  CO!  N 

Marcli   o.     It    is   a    -erious   thing    for    N  that    three- 

Mirths  of  the  losses  laM  year  through  strikes  in  the  Commonwealth  lu\e 

29 


to  be  borne  by  her,  and  that  for  weeks  she  has  been  advertised  as  torn 
with  industrial  dissension.  The  unionist  who  has  obtained  substantial 
concessions  by  trade  dislocation  does  not,  perhaps,  see  the  point.  His 
trouble  is  that  he  did  not  demand  more  than  he  now  enjoys,  and  he  is 
thinking  of  bringing  further  pressure  to  bear  upon  his  employers  by  way 
of  solace.  But  it  will  be  well  if  even  the  successful  striker  of  the  past 
begins  to  study  the  situation  as  it  is  developing  out  of  the  meat  and  iron 
trade  strikes.  We  do  not  propose  to  open  afresh  the  argument  as  to  the 
folly  of  bringing  the  law  into  contempt,  though  to  our  mind  this  is  the 
crucial  thing  in  the  State's  experience  today.  No  community  can  hold 
together  long  unless  the  will  of  the  people,  as  expressed  through  Parlia- 
ment, is  honored  by  all  classes  alike;  and  when  any  considerable  number 
of  men  show  themselves  incapable  of  understanding  the  duties  and  re- 
sponsibilities of  citizenship,  it  is  time  that  the  rest  stood  together.  This  is, 
however,  the  stage  at  which  our  present  argument  may  develop.  We  do 
not  appeal  to  the  unionists  of  New  South  Wales  now  from  the  side  of 
law,  but  from  the  side  of  self-interest.  They  are  steadily  stirring  up  the 
best  elements  in  the  population  against  them.  With,  in  many  respects, 
a  good  case  for  consideration — with  genuine  grievances  to  be  heard  and 
reasonable  claims  to  be  adjusted — they  are  by  wrong  tactics  welding  every 
other  class  together  in  opposition,  simply  because  industrial  unrest  in 
this  State  is  seen  to  be  leading  to  disaster. 

After  gaining  so  much,  are  the  massed  unions  of  New  South 
Wales  willing  to  risk  the  sacrifice  of  magnificent  achievement? 

It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  the  force  of  the  temptation  to  strike 
when  there  is  a  setback,  or  to  hammer  down  ruthlessly  those  who  stand 
up  for  rights  assured  under  the  law.  The  sense  of  political  power  in 
possessi/on,  of  the  whole  machinery  of  administration  securely  in  hand, 
and  the  wealth  in  view  waiting  to  be  seized,  is  hard  to  control;  and  the 
Liberals  under  the  same  conditions  would  be  subject  to  like  aberrations. 
But  party  government  in  the  past  has  been  kept  sound  by  the  knowledge 
that  Parliament  cannot  be  dissociated  from  the  people,  and  that  respon- 
sibility to  the  community  must  be  the  explanation  and  assurance  of  the 
right  use  of  power. 

Unfortunately,  class  consciousness  in  the  Labour  party  has  made 
the  unions  think  of  themselves  as  the  people;  and  strike  has  followed 
strike  because  it  has  been  assumed  by  so  many  men,  restless  to  secure 
what  they  consider  is  due  to  them,  that  political  and  administrative  power 
is  to  be  exercised  on  their  behalf  without  reference  to  anybody  else. 

What  have  we  got  at  the  present  moment?  Allowing  for  those 
butchers'  employees  who  have  hurried  back,  there  must  still  be  12,000 
or  13,000  men  out  of  work,  and  if  we  allow  an  average  of  four  depen- 
dants to  one  worker  there  are  50,000  souls  now  in  trouble  in  Sydney 
alone.  This  is  like  the  position  created  by  a  serious  depression  or  finan- 
cial crisis.  The  State  might  just  as  well  be  in  the  condition  of  privation 
caused  by  continued  drought,  except  that  the  classes  now  being  stirred 
up  against  labour  are  conscious  of  reserves  of  strength  never  felt  in 
times  like  those  which  culminated  in  1893  and  1903. 

It  is  because  so  much  is  at  stake  that  united  action  is  being  taken 
by  the  employers  in  two  great  industries,  and  that  everywhere  there  is 
apprehension  and  restriction.  This  condition  is  reacting  upon  employ- 
ment throughout  the  State.  The  man  on  the  land  has  already  been  hard 
hit  by  strikes  during  last  year,  and  is  feeling  the  pressure  of  a  double 
deadlock  in  the  metropolis.  He  is  only  waiting  for  the  word  to  swarm 
down  upon  Sydney  to  help  the  master  butchers,  and  he  is  discussing  every 
move  with  his  fellows  in  the  new  light  of  intolerable  demands  and  tyran- 
nical unionism. 

Surely  the  wage-earner  must  see  that  the  end  of  it  all  is  bound  to 
be  loss  upon  loss.  He  will  carry  the  burden  of  ultimate  disaster,  how- 
ever he  may  scheme  to  dodge  it,  and  the  result  for  the  State  as  a  whole 
will  be  stagnation  and  widespread  unemployment. 

30 


THE  PAINTERS. 

DISSATISFACTION    IN   TRADE.      DIRECT   ACTION   PROPOSED. 

March  7. — Painters,  who  at  present  have  more  work  than  they  can 
cope  with,  have  a  grievance  which  is  to  be  discussed  at  a  special  meeting 
on  Monday  night. 

Under  the  award,  which  was  made  in  December,  1911,  the  wages 
were  fixed  at  is.  4d.  an  hour  for  painters  and  is.  6d.  an  hour  for  sign- 
writers.  The  men  subsequently  claimed  to  be  entitled,  owing  to  the 
increased  cost  of  living,  to  is.  6d.  and  is.  8d.  respectively. 

Requests  were  made  for  a  conference,  but  owing  to  the  new  Paint- 
ers' Union  demanding  recognition  nothing  was  done.  The  Wages  Board 
was  then  asked  to  make  a  variation  in  the  award,  but  the  inquiry  was 
adjourned  pending  the  decision  of  Mr.  Justice  Heydon  in  the  iron  trades 
case.  That  judgment,  being  in  effect  that  an  award  cannot  be  reopened, 
the  painters  now  want  to  know  what  they  can  do  except  take  direct 
action  of  some  kind.  This  will  be  the  subject  for  Monday  night. 

STRIKE  RESULTS. 
MEN  NEARLY  STARVING. 

Auckland,  Friday. 

March  7. — The  man  who  assaulted  the  Secretary  of  the  new  Water- 
side Workers'  Union  in  his  office  has  been  sentenced  to  14  days'  im- 
prisonment. 

During  the  hearing  of  the  case  it  was^ stated  that  much  ifl- feeling 
prevailed  on  the  wharfs  between  the  members  of  the  old  and  the  new 
unions. 

A  deputation  waited  upon  the  Mayor  stating  that  there  were  many 
unemployed  in  the  city  as  the  result  of  the  recent  strike.  It  was  stated 
that  some  were  on  the  verge  of  starvation. 

The  Mayor  promised  to  endeavor  to  overcome  the  difficulty. 

IRON  TRADES. 

MEN  TO  TAKE  BALLOT.    BRIGHTER  OUTLOOK. 

March    7. — The    ironworkers'    strike    was    advanced    a    stage    nearer 
settlement  yesterday. 

A  mass  meeting  of  strikers  was  held  in  the  Protestant  Hall  during 
the  afternoon,  only  those  who  produced  pence-cards  or  badges  being 
admitted 

ACT  OF  STRIKING. 
NOT  A  MISDEMEANOR.    MR.   HALL  EXPLAINS.    PROSECUTIONS  DIFFICULT. 

March  n. — An  interesting  speech  was  made  by  the  State  Attorney- 
General  last  night  in  the  Legislative  Assembly,  when  he  explained  why 
the  Government  had  not  prosecuted  the  recent  meat  strikers. 

Dealing  with  industrial  administration,  the  Attorney-General  said, 
it  had  been  suggested  that  the  Government  favored  the  employees  during 
the  recent  industrial  disputes,  and  that,  because  of  its  wholesome  fear  of 
the  Trades  Hall,  it  had  not  dared  to  administer  the  law  as  regarded  the 
employees. 

Liberals  said  that  the  men  wanted  the  right  to  aftjitrate  with  the 
employers,  and  that  if  the  results  of  the  arbitration  did  not  suit  them 
they  also  wanted  the  right  to  strike.  But  when  Liberals  put  forward 
such  an  allegation  they  did  not  speak  of  the  rural  worker.  Him,  they 
would  not  allow  even  the  right  to  arbitrate!  The  country  will  be 
ruined,  they  said,  if  the  rural  worker  were  given  the  right  of  access  to 
the  Arbitration  Court.  According  to  Liberal  views  the  rural  worker 
should  be  glad  to  put  in  a  day's  arduous  toil,  and  his  night  in  great 

31 


thankfulness,   and   at   the   same   time  be  glad  to  have  the  privilege   of 
working  on  a  farm.     (Ministerial  laughter.) 

"We  shall  probably  give  the  Liberals  another  opportunity  of  saying 
whether  the  rural  worker  shall  have  right  to  strike  or  arbitrate,"  the 
Attorney-General  went  on. 


ADMINISTERING    THE    LAW. 

The  Government  had  fairly,  and  to  the  best  of  its  ability,  adminis- 
tered the  industrial  law  of  the  country  during  the  past  three  years. 
(Loud  Opposition  laughter.) 

Mr.  Wade :  Did  you  not  threaten  to  cancel  the  licenses  of  the  ferry 
companies  last  year  unless  the  strike,  then  in  progress,  was  settled? 

The  Attorney-General  (after  a  long  pause)  :  I  don't  think  we  did. 
I  was  in  the  cabinet  at  the  time,  and  should  have  known  of  it  had  it 
occurred. 

Mr.  Thrower:  We  threatened  to  refuse  the  renewal  of  their  leases, 
and  they  should  never  have  been  renewed. 

The  Attorney-General,  continuing,  said  that  unless  the  employers 
were  either  willing  to  enter  upon  prosecutions  of  men  who  struck  or  were 
willing  to  support  the  Government,  the  present  Act  could  not  be  properly 
administered.  (Ministerial  cheers.) 

"Striking  as  it  is  today  is  not,  according  to  the  existing  law,  what 
it  was  in  1901,"  added  Mr.  Hall.  "It  was  declared  then  to  be  a  misde- 
jneanou*  to  strike,  and  in  1908,  according  to  the  Act,  a  strike  was  punish- 
able on  information,  and  conviction  was  followed  by  fine,  or  imprison- 
ment in  default.  It  is  not  so  today.  The  act  of  striking  today  is  not  a 
misdemeanour — it  is  a  civil  offence." 

Colonel  Onslow:     It  is  an  amusement.     (Laughter.) 

The  Attorney-General:  A  strike  gives  the  right  to  an  employer  to 
bring  a  civil  action  against  the  strikers. 

Colonel  Onslow:  That's  right;  it's  recreation  to  the  men.  (Laughter.) 

The  Attorney-General:  According  to  a  recent  judgment  of  Judge 
Scholes,  the  action  of  striking  today  is  not  a  criminal  offence,  but  a  civil 
offence. 

Mr.  Wade:  Strikers  are  liable  to  be  fined  and  imprisoned,  in  de- 
fault of  paying  the  fine  imposed. 

The  Attorney-General:  No;  that  is  not  so.  Fines  may  be  secured 
by  garnishee,  but  imprisonment  does  not  follow  non-payment  of  fines 
imposed  for  striking.  Employers  have  it  in  their  power  to  prosecute  the 
men  who  strike,  or  to  willingly  assist  the  Government  to  do  so,  but  if 
they  do  not  aid  the  Government  we  cannot  get  information  sufficient  to 
support  a  summons  under  existing  conditions.  If  during  a  strike  or 
lock-out  we  applied  to  the  case  of  the  employers  the  provisions  of  the 
Coercion  Act,  as  Mr.  Wade  did  in  the  case  of  the  employees,  we  could 
seize  the  employers'  papers  and  perhaps  secure  convictions. 

ANOTHER  STRIKE  ENDS. 

THE   IRON   TRADES.    DECLARED   OFF.    WAGES   LOST,   ;£6o,OOO. 
March   II—  The  strike  of  ironworkers'  assistants,  which  began  on 
February  20th,  and  later  on  extended  to  nearly  the  whole  of  the  iron 
trades,  affecting  about  8,000  employees  of  all  trades,  has  been  declared  off. 
This    decision    was    arrived    at    last    night    at    a    mass    meeting    of 
"assistants,"  held  in  the  basement  of  the  Town  Hall,  under  the  presi- 
dency  of   Mr.   D.   Black,   the  chairman   of   the   Federated   Ironworkers' 
Assistants'  Association,  about  1,300  members  being  present.     Representa- 
tives of  the   employees'   defence  committee  were  present,  including  the 
president  and  secretary  of  the  Labour  Council,  Messrs.  W.  O'Brien  and 

E.  J.  Kavanaugh,  M.  L.  C 

32 


FROM   THE   SYDNEY   SUN. 
EXTENSION   FEARED. 

OTHER    UNIONISTS    RESTIVE.      GAS    EMPLOYEES'    POSITION. 

March  2. — A  big  extension  of  the  iron  trades  strike  may  be  ex- 
pected within  the  next  few  days  if  a  settlement  of  the  dispute  is  not 
speedily  effected.  Already  many  men  who  have  been  rendered  idle  be- 
cause of  the  action  of  other  unionists  are  asking  why  they  should  be 
debarred  from  earning  their  living  when  they  are  not  actually  concerned 
in  the  matter.  The  scope  of  the  dispute  has  even  extended  to  the  Store- 
men  and  Packers'  Union  (some  of  whose  members  are  engaged  at  Mort's 
Dock),  Trolly  and  Draymen's  Union,  and  the  Saw  Mill  and  Timber 
Yards  Employees'  Union.  In  each  of  these  cases  the  number  of  men 
concerned  is  small. 

Where  a  serious  extension  is  anticipated  is  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Gas  Employees'  Union,  and  if  the  strike  is  not  soon  declared  off  upwards 
of  700  of  these  men  will  be  drawn  into  the  strike  whirlpool.  Hoskins, 
Ltd.,  have,  of  course,  closed  down  the  big  pipe  works,  and  it  will  not 
take  long  for  the  supply  of  large  gas  mains  on  hand  to  run  out.  When  it 
does  over  350  men  will  be  thrown  into  idleness  at  this  work  alone. 
Then  there  are  the  men  whose  duty  it  is  to  set  special  castings.  Almost 
every  corner  in  Sydney  streets  requires  a  special  pipe,  and  if  the  foun- 
dries remained  closed  much  longer  these  men  will  be  unable  to  work  for 
•the  want  of  castings.  There  are  other  members  of  the  Gas  Employees' 
Union  likely  to  be  involved  as  well. 

FROM  THE  SYDNEY  SUNDAY  TIMES. 

TRADES  AND  LABOR. 

BAKERS  AND  DAY  WORK.    LOG  FORWARDED  TO  EMPLOYERS. 
WILL  THE  MEN  WAIT  FOR  PARLIAMENTARY  ACTION? 

March  8. — In  accordance  with  the  decision  come  to  at  a  mass  meet- 
ing a  week  ago,  the  Secretary  of  the  Operative  Bakers'  Association  has 
forwarded  copies  of  the  new  union  log  to  all  employers. 

The  outstanding  feature  of  the  log  is  the  demand  for  day  work. 
Various  improvements  in  wages  and  conditions  are  also  sought. 

Although  many  members  of  the  union  are  inclined  to  trust  to  Gov- 
ernment action  in  the  way  of  making  day  work  compulsory  by  Act  of 
Parliament,  others  think  that  it  may  be  many  months,  or  more  than 
months,  before  such  legislation  is  put  through. 

The  question  is  whether  the  majority  of  the  men  will  wait  for 
Parliamentary  action  or  follow  up  their  three  weeks'  notice  to  the  em- 
ployers in  demand  of  day  work. 

FROM  THE  SYDNEY  EVENING  NEWS. 

THE  EMPLOYEES'  TERMS. 
LETTER  TO  ATTORNEY-GENERAL. 

March  3. — When  the  Stock,  Meat,  and  Allied  Industries  Committee 
waited  on  the  Government  on  Monday  night  it  handed  to  the  Attorney- 
General  the  following  letter: 

Stock,  Meat,  and  Allied  Industries  Committee, 
Royal  Exchange,  Sydney, 

2nd  March,  1914. 

Sir: — I  wish  to  report  that  the  suggestions  made  by  you  on  Friday 
last  to  this  committee  were  placed  before  a  general  meeting  of  the  Master 
Retail  Butchers'  Association  on  Friday  evening  last,  and  they  decided  by 

33 


a  practically  unanimous  vote  (there  being  only  one  dissentient)  that  they 
could  not  accept  same.  Notwithstanding  this,  my  committee  gave  the 
matter  most  urgent  consideration  on  Saturday,  with  the  result  that  they 
decided  to  inform  you  that  they  still  adhere  to  the  attitude  they  have 
always  taken,  namely,  that  if  the  men  return  to  work  on  the  conditions 
existing  on  February  1st,  and  subsequently  apply  for  a  variation  of  the 
present  existing  award,  the  Master  Retail  Butchers'  Association  will  not 
oppose  the  reopening  of  the  matter,  and  will  expedite  the  hearing,  so  as 
to  get  a  decision  as  soon  as  possible.  But  it  must  be  distinctly  under- 
stood that  if  all  such  labor  cannot  immediately  be  absorbed  this  must  not 
be  considered  as  a  breach  of  faith  on  the  part  of  the  employers.  Further, 
that  the  union  must  pledge  itself  to  the  Ministry  to  refer  all  future  dis- 
putes without  cessation  of  work  to  the  board  for  the  industry. 

So  that  you  may  not  be  under  any  misapprehension,  and  to  show 
how  fairly  the  employers  are  dealing  with  the  situation,  my  committee  are 
informed  by  the  Master  Retail  Butchers'  Association  that  the  rates  pre- 
vailing on  February  ist  last  were  in  most  instances  very  considerably 
higher  than  those  provided  by  the  award,  and  a  lot  of  the  men  had  also 
in  many  cases  the  concession  of  as  much  meat  as  they  required. 

SLAUGHTERMEN  AND  MASTERS  KILLING. 
UNION   DELEGATE  ORDERED  OFF. 

March  3. — The  employers  engaged  in  killing  operations  had  another 
busy  day  at  the  Glebe  Island  Abattoirs  yesterday.  They  worked  the  full 
day,  and  accounted  for  1,351  sheep,  130  cattle,  45  pigs  and  12  calves. 

The  stock  yarded  at  the  abattoirs  since  yesterday  comprise  about 
i, 600  sheep  and  200  head  of  cattle;  of  these  500  sheep  and  between  30 
and  40  head  of  cattle  were  available  for  the  unionists,  who  resumed  work 
about  7.30  this  morning  in  the  No.  12  beef  house,  and  in  the  two  calf 
houses,  which  were  made  available  for  them  to  kill  sheep  in.  Close  on  a 
dozen  men  were  engaged  in  preparing  the  meat  for  the  three  union 
depots,  which  include  the  one  opened  in  Bridge  street,  Drummoyne. 
The  usual  number  of  carcass  butchers  were  at  work  in  the  other  sections. 

Since  the  commencement  of  the  trouble  a  good  force  of  uniformed 
and  plain  clothes  policemen  have  been  stationed  at  the  abattoirs  but  so 
far  they  have  not  been  called  upon  to  take  any  action.  This  morning, 
however,  one  carcass  butcher  threatened  to  call  the  police  to  remove  a 
union  delegate  from  a  certain  part  of  the  abattoirs.  The  delegate  was 
on  the  mutton  side  of  the  island  when  his  presence  in  a  house  was 
objected  to.  He  at  first  refused  to  obey  the  butcher's  request  to  leave 
the  premises,  believing  that  he  was  entitled  to  remain  until  told  to  go 
by  the  person  to  whom  the  place  belonged.  A  few  minutes  later,  how- 
ever, he  left  the  place,  and  walked  across  to  the  southern  side  of  the 
abattoirs,  and  conferred  with  Mr.  T.  W.  Furse,  the  union  secretary. 

MR.  JUSTICE  HEYDON'S  JUDGMENT. 

March  3. — The  judgment  delivered  yesterday  by  Mr.  Justice  Heydon 
in  the  iron  trade  case,  defines  most  lucidly  and  forcibly  the  position  of 
industrial  law  as  against  industrial  force.  It  ran  along  the  ancient  right 
of  all  men  to  have  contracts  respected  and  vindicated,  which  is  the 
basis  of  all  law,  of  all  freedom.  In  only  one  point  does  the  theory  of 
industrial  law  vary  from  that  of  contract ;  an  award  may  be  reopened 
to  permit  of  the  application  of  the  minimum  wage  principle.  "But,"  says 
Mr.  Justice  Heydon,  "the  employees  who  are  getting  a  living  wage  or 
more,  have  not  the  same  claim  to  break  their  award."  It  may  be  ob- 
served, moreover,  that  any  risk  of  an  award  being  legally  broken,  as 
indicated,  may,  and  indeed  must,  be  insured  against  by  employers,  it 
must,  that  is  to  say,  appear  in  the  cost  of  the  goods. 

His  Honor  laid  down  the  principle  that  it  is  not  the  function  of  the 
law  to  endorse  or  act  as  mediator  between  parties  still  in  arms.  "Alto- 

34 


gether  apart,  however,"  said  his  Honor,  "from  the  fact  that  lock-outs 
and  strikes  are  breaches  of  the  law,  the  Court  cannot  apply  its  remedies 
while  the  parties  are  applying  their  own  remedies.  It  must  be  one  thing 
or  the  other.  The  Court  and  Boards  were  not  intended  as  additional 
weapons  to  assist  in  a  war,  but  as  tribunals  to  which  both  parties  must 
submit.  Neither  the  Boards  nor  the  Courts,  therefore,  should  deal  with 
applications  from  employers  who  are  locking-out,  or  employees  who  are 
on  strike." 

It  should  be  obvious  to  all  reasonable  men  that  the  Government 
should  take  up  a  similar  stand,  but  that,  we  recognize,  under  our  present 
system  of  Government,  is  a  counsel  of  perfection.  In  this  respect  we 
blame  both  Liberal  and  Labor  Governments;  they  both  interfere,  and 
they  both  interfere  too  early,  and  too  often.  Naturally,  the  politician 
wants  to  see  peace  restored;  everybody  does  that;  his  personal  interests, 
also,  demand  peace,  for  industrial  war  raises  too  many  awkward  economic 
questions;  it  is  only  the  highly  exceptional  politician  who  hungers  for 
exceptionally  difficult  problems,  the  average  one  wants  to  solve  the  easy 
questions ;  his  constant  prayer,  therefore,  is  "Give  peace — in  our  time — 
O  Lord." 

When  trouble  arises,  therefore,  the  politician  is  anxious  to  inter- 
vene, and  his  whole  idea  of  making  peace  is  to  effect  some  sort  of  a 
compromise.  Of  course  a  compromise  may  be  anything  between  a  close 
approximation  to  justice  and  a  base  betrayal  of  essential  principles.  But 
nobody  is  apt  to  be  too  critical  when  peace  is  restored;  industry  and 
commerce  swing  along  again,  nearly  everybody  is  contented,  for  the 
moment,  and  the  sage  politician  acquires  kudos,  which  means  a  continu- 
ance of  his  job,  and  more  votes  at  the  next  election.  Nor  is  the  politi- 
cian solely  to  blame,  for  there  are  usually  not  lacking  plenty  of  people 
to  spur  him  on  to  intervene.  He  is  assured  that  the  community  is  in 
deadly  peril  (which  usually  it  is  not),  he  is  told  that  the  people  are 
starving,  as  in  the  case  of  this  meat  strike  (which  they  are  not),  and  he 
is  informed  that  "something  must  be  done,"  or  that  "the  Government 
must  act."  When  he  gets  advice,  like  that  from  both  sides,  advice  which 
chimes  in  so  neatly  with  his  personal  inclination  and  interests,  inter- 
vention results,  a  compromise  is  effected,  peace  is  restored — and,  almost 
before  -the  parties  concerned  have  .ceased  congratulating  themselves,  war 
breaks  out  again. 

And  quite  logically.  If  a  strike  either  wins,  or  results  in  a  half 
win,  the  men  would  be  foolish  (looking  at  the  matter  from  their  point 
of  view  solely)  if  they  did  not  seek  to  repeat  the  exploit.  All  men  seek 
their  own  interest,  and  when  they  find  by  experience,  that  their  interest 
can  be  best  served  by  breaking  awards,  of  course  they  break  them.  It  is 
useless  to  expect  that  masses  of  men  will  be  influenced  by  broad-minded 
views  regarding  the  common  good;  all  men  are  not  philosophers. 

That  view  prompted  Mr.  Justice  Heydon  to  sympathise  with  the 
iron  workers.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  they  had  made  their  agreement 
just  before  the  year  1912,  when  wages  began  to  go  up  in  all  directions, 
"they  have  seen  workers  like  themselves  getting  higher  wages  than 
themselves ;  and,  worst  of  all,  they  have  seen  them  getting  them  by  means 
of  strikes.  Every  successful  strike  is  the  parent  of  other  strikes  and 
every  successful  breach  of  the  law  brings  the  law  into  contempt.  We 
must  take  human  nature  as  we  find  it.  It  is  not  the  slightest  use  for- 
bidding people  to  travel  by  a  road  which  they  find  is  the  road  to  success." 

The  way  to  stop  strikes,  therefore,  is  simple,  though  the  application 
of  the  method  may  be  difficult.  It  is  that  the  community  should  make 
it  an  absolute,  hard  and  fast,  double  rivetted  rule  that  where  an  award 
exists,  or  where  an  award  can  be  easily  obtained,  no  strike  shall  be 
allowed  to  succeed;  no  dispute  shall  be  compromised;  and  that  every 
such  trouble  shall  be  fought  out  till  absolute  defeat  is  admitted  by  one 
side  to  the  other.  The  ability  and  willingness  to  fight  is  the  one  guar- 
antee of  permanent  peace. 

35 


THE  MILLENNIUM. 

March  9. — One  of  the  branches  of  Victoria  Labor  organization  knows 
of  a  short-cut  to  the  millennium.  It  is  quite  easy.  You  simply  national- 
ise all  "the  means  of  production,  distribution,  and  exchange,"  and  pay 
for  them  with  "State  bank  deposit  receipts,"  which  are  to  be  "payable  in 
gold  on  demand."  That  is  the  trouble  with  all  those  millenniums;  there 
is  some  little  trifle  about  it  which  will  not  work.  Why  go  to  the  trouble 
to  issue  "State  bank  deposit  receipts"  when  an  ordinary  cheque  would 
do  as  well?  The  reason,  of  course,  is  the  illusion  in  the  mind  of  the 
theorists  that  the  State  is  something  immeasurably  rich,  and  that  by 
calling  a  cheque  a  "State  bank  deposit  receipt,"  it  thereby  becomes,  in 
some  magical  way,  sure  of  payment.  Whereas,  of  course,  the  opposite 
is  the  case.  The  State  is  not  rich,  but  poor.  It  is  so  poor  that  it  has  to 
be  continually  borrowing  money,  and  the  only  reason  it  can  borrow 
money  is  the  theory  that  it  is  "reputable  and  responsible";  that  is  to  say, 
that  it  will  pay  its  debts  and  will  not  engage  in  burglarly,  piracy  or 
bushranging.  If  the  State  went  suddenly  mad  and  set  out  on  a  wholesale 
"commandeering"  campaign,  it  would  doubtless  feel  enormously  rich  for 
the  first  ten  minutes,  but  after  that  it  would  begin  to  feel  horribly  poor, 
and  when  it  tried  to  effect  the  "payment  in  gold  on  demand,"  it  would 
find  itself  weeping  into  a  bankrupted  till. 

THE  MORAL  OF  THE  MEAT  STRIKE. 

•  March  9. — The  loss  in  wages  sustained  by  the  meat  trade  employees, 
and  their  allies,  is  said  to  be  about  £35,000,  and  this  has  been  sustained 
without  any  advantage  on  the  other  side  of  the  ledger.  It  is  understand- 
able that  the  gain  of  a  half-hour  weekly  is  claimed  as  a  gain,  but  the 
employers  pointed  out  that  that  concession  would  have  been  arrived  at 
without  the  strike.  In  any  case  it  is  not  of  great  importance,  and  is  not 
likely  to  throw  any  loss  upon  the  masters  or  to  be  the  cause  of  higher 
prices  to  the  consumer.  A  man  can  do  as  much  work  in  49^  hours  as 
he  does  in  50,  for  in  matters  of  industry  there  is  an  analogy  to  the 
ancient  Greek  maxim  as  to  art  that  "the  half  is  greater  than  the  whole." 
Interpreted  fairly  and  honestly,  a  reduction  in  hours  need  not  in  many 
cases  mean  a  reduction  in  efficiency;  and  this  alteration  in  the  meat  trade 
schedule  seems  to  be  an  instance  in  point. 

The  broad  feature  of  the  strike  is  that  the  men  have  been  beaten. 
No  amount  of  glossing  can  get  over  that  fact.  They  did  not  lose  because 
their  demands  were  reasonable  or  unreasonable;  they  lost  because,  pri- 
marily the  employers  fought  them  to  a  finish  and  because,  on  the  whole, 
the  vast  majority  of  public  opinion  was  against  them.  They  lost  in  the 
fight  against  the  employers  because  they  had  no  monopoly  of  the  thing 
they  had  to  sell — their  labor.  After  all,  the  slaughtering  of  animals  for 
food  is  the  most  primitive  of  the  trades.  Man,  at  need,  takes  to  it  natu- 
rally, and  in  a  pastoral  country  such  as  this  is  a  great  percentage  of  men 
have  had  some  experience  in  it.  Not  having  a  monopoly,  therefore,  it  is 
obvious  that  in  a  desperate  struggle  the  unionists  were  liable  to  be 
swamped  by  a  rush  of  free  labor;  the  more  so  as  it  was  known  that  the 
slaughtermen  were  getting  very  high  wages.  To  force  matters  to  the 
free  labor  point,  therefore,  would  have  been  like  breaking  a  dam  and 
letting  in  an  overwhelming  flood.  The  union  dared  not  take  the  risk,  and 
wisely  decided  to  haul  down  the  "Jolly  Roger,"  and  get  back  to  work. 

They  have  been  blamed  for  delaying  four  weeks,  but  it  must  be 
remembered  that  it  is  the  looker-on  that  is  apt  to  see  most  of  the  fight. 
To  the  dispassionate  observer  it  was  evident  that  the  men  were  beaten 
at  the  start,  but  the  man  in  the  thick  of  the  fight  is  not  dispassionate; 
he  would  not  be  there  if  that  were  the  case.  He  sets  out  with  hopes; 
he  thinks  he  can  win  altogether;  or  at  the  worst,  he  believes  that  he  can 
force  some  sort  of  a  compromise.  He  is  thus  buoyed  up  even  in  a 
losing  fight,  and  the  battle  goes  on  long  after  any  chance  of  victory  has 

36 


departed.  Moreover,  it  must  be  remembered  that  many  apparently  hope- 
less strikes  win  either  wholly  or  in  part. 

The  meat  trade  employees  have  seen  many  instances  of  that  kind, 
and,  naturally,  they  hoped  that  their  effort  would  have  a  similar  result. 
The  fact  that  many  of  the  employers  were  willing  to  compromise,  and 
that  fact  must  have  been  known  to  some  extent  even  before  the  fight, 
must  have  had  no  small  effect  in  precipitating  the  strike. 

The  strikers,  however,  came  in  collision  with  something  new,  in 
the  shape  of  a  new  spirit  among  the  employers.  Most  men  are  anxious 
that  their  businesses  should  go  on  peaceably,  for  any  interruption  is  apt 
to  mean  loss.  Rent  and  other  charges  have  to  be  paid,  and,  besides,  a 
disturbance  of  conditions  may  mean  a  loss  of  trade.  Some  courage, 
therefore,  is  required  on  'the  part  of  an  employer  who  may  not  be  very 
"strong"  financially,  to  resolve  to  see  a  fight  through.  But  at  a  certain 
point  a  man  must  fight,  and  the  meat  trade  employers  realised  that  that 
point  had  been  reached.  They  might  have  compromised  on  the  wages, 
but  to  have  compromised  on  the  principle  of  the  sanctity  of  contract 
would  have  been  to  make  any  compromise  worthless.  Therefore,  they 
fought,  and  they  won.  The  moral  is  clear.  When  a  strike  is  initiated  by 
a  breach  of  contract  no  compromise  should  be  made.  If  employers  adopt 
that  as  an  invariable  rule  they  will  have  the  support  of  the  whole  com- 
munity, and  there  will  be  fewer  strikes. 

SHOPMEN  RESUME  WORK. 
TROUBLE  AT  A  REDFERN  FACTORY. 

March  9. — The  meat  trouble  lasted  exactly  a  month.  It  was  four 
weeks  ago  today  that  the  three  days'  notice  the  butchers'  shopmen  gave 
of  the  new  conditions  they  demanded — a  48  hours'  week  and  los.  a 
week  extra  pay — expired.  This  morning  there  was  to  have  been  a  general 
resumption  of  work;  but,  there  are  so  many  little  details  to  be  settled 
after  a  strike,  and  the  meat  trouble  has  left  a  number  of  matters  behind 
that  are  somewhat  disturbing. 

Trouble  was  reported  to  have  occurred  at  Silvester's  smallgoods 
factory,  Redfern,  over  the  starting  and  finishing  hours.  According  to 
the  basis  of  settlement,  the  men  are  to  begin  at  6.30  A.  M.  and  finish  at 
5.30  p.  M.  It  is  stated  that  a  misunderstanding  arose  over  this  question, 
and  the  men  at  the  factory  refused  to  go  to  work.  The  union  officials 
hope,  however,  that  it  will  soon  be  adjusted. 

There  are  still  a  number  of  shopmen  unemployed.  As  was  ex- 
pected, it  was  found  impossible  for  all  the  shopmen  to  resume  this 
morning,  but  there  are  indications  that  very  soon  most  of  the  men  will 
be  absorbed.  There  were  continuous  inquiries  at  the  Trades  Hall  by 
master  butchers  for  men. 

The  special  strike  inquiry  committee  is  still  meeting  to  settle  dis- 
putes that  may  arise,  and  it  is  expected  that  several  days  must  pass 
before  it  can  be  disbanded. 


FROM  THE  SYDNEY  TELEGRAPH. 
PARLIAMENT  AND  THE  STRIKE. 

March  4. — The  references  to  the  present  industrial  trouble  in  Parlia- 
ment last  night  were  in  striking  and  gratifying  contrast  to  those  heard 
from  the  Labor  Opposition  during  the  coal  strike  and  similar  troubles 
with  which  the  Liberals  when  in  office  had  to  deal.  Mr.  Wade,  while 
criticising  the  action  of  the  Government  as  it  deserved,  was  careful  to 
refrain  from  any  attempt  to  make  political  capital  out  of  it,  and  instead 
of  embarrassing  the  administration  of  the  law  he  offered  the  cordial 

37 


co-operation  of  the  Opposition  in  impartially  carrying  it  out.  In  the 
coal  strike  the  caucus  seized  the  occasion  to  move  a  vote  of  censure  on 
the  Government  for  upholding  the  law,  and  demanded  the  seizure  of  the 
mines,  which  was  well  known  to  be  as  impracticable  as  it  was  unjust. 
Similarly,  when  the  Common  Law  for  the  protection  of  life  and  property 
was  enforced  in  the  Broken-hill  strike,  the  Government  was  denounced 
for  brutally  bludgeoning  the  workers,  and  its  action  challenged  by  a 
direct  motion.  There  is,  fortunately,  nothing  of  that  kind  now,  and  if 
the  laws  which  Parliament  has  passed  to  protect  the  public  against  the 
effect  of  conspiracies  to  deprive  them  of  the  necessaries  of  life  are 
inoperative,  it  will  certainly  not  be  the  fault  of  the  Opposition. 

Mr.  Holman  declared  last  night  that  if  free  labor  is  employed  to 
take  the  place  of  the  strikers  the  Government  will  unflinchingly  do  what 
it  always  condemned  its  predecessor  for  doing,  and  extend  protection  to 
every  citizen,  unionist  or  non-unionist,  who  is  obeying  the  law.  In  view 
of  this  pronouncement,  if  the  butchers  cannot  obtain  union  labor  to  con- 
tinue the  supply  of  meat  to  the  public,  it  is  their  duty  to  engage  such 
other  men  as  may  be  available.  Of  course,  it  is  in  the  power  of  no  law 
or  no  Government  to  order  men  who  are  on  strike  to  go  back  to  work. 
That  is  not  its  duty,  even  if  it  had  the  power.  It  is  there  to  see  that  men 
willing  to  work  are  not  subjected  to  any  unlawful  intimidation,  and  if 
it  does  that  the  law  of  supply  and  demand  will  do  the  rest. 

SEVERE  CASTIGATION. 

WHAT  DID  MR.  HOLMAN  MEAN?    THREATENING  THE  EMPLOYERS. 

March  5.— During  the  debate  on  the  Address-in-Reply  in  the  Legis- 
lative assembly  last  night,  Mr.  Badgery,  the  member  for  Wollondilly, 
stated  that  the  attitude  of  the  Premier  and  of  the  Minister  of  Labor 
throughput  the  meat  strike,  had  been  to  threaten  the  employers  by 
implication  and  every  other  way;  saying  that  if  the  employers  did  not 
give  way,  they  would  be  prosecuted.  "I  believe  there  are  some  differ- 
ences of  opinion  as  to  what  took  place  at  these  interviews,"  said  Mr. 
Badgery,  "but  one  of  the  committee  told  me  it  was  a  lesson  to  them  that 
they  should  not  go  there  without  a  shorthand  writer."  The  sympathy 
and  power  of  the  Government,  asserted  Mr.  Badgery,  have  been  placed  on 
the  side  of  the  men,  who  had  broken  the  law.  The  Premier  would  not 
tell  the  House  what  he  told  the  men.  If  he  told  them,  "Stick  to  it,  boys; 
I  have  threatened  these  beggars,  and  we'll  beat  them !"  he  would  not  tell 
that  to  the  House.  What  did  the  Premier  mean  when  he  said  that 
unless  the  matter  were  settled,  he  would  take  steps  to  provide  the  people 
with  meat?  Would  he  do  it? 

A  Member:     He  can't  do  it  without  bloodshed. 

Mr.  Badgery:  Then  he  had  better  not  try  it.  (Laughter.)  Mr.  Hol- 
man, he  went  on,  might  have  promised  these  men  increased  wages  as  a 
reward  for  their  going  back,  but  the  Government  was  trying  to  compel 
the  employers  to  agree  to  the  demands  of  the  men. 

The  employers  had  for  the  first  time  made  a  strong  stand,  and  had 
had  to  fight  the  unions  and  the  Government. 

"We  are  going  to  have  a  very  high  market,"  said  Mr.  Badgery, 
"and  the  prices  of  meat  will  go  up.  The  strike  is  dead  now,  but  nothing 
has  proved  so  conclusively  that  the  Government  is  not  fit  for  its  trust." 

The  sentiments  expressed  in  the  following  editorial  repre- 
sent the  general  feeling  of  the  people  of  Australia,  to  the  effect 
that  its  "Industrial  Peace"  legislation  with  all  of  its  complicated, 
cumbersome  and  expensive  machinery,  has  proved  to  be  a  most 
dismal  failure  and  a  handicap  rather  than  a  boon  to  the  progress 
and  development  of  the  country: 

38 


A  BROKEN-DOWN  LAW. 

March  6. — Whatever  the  ultimate  upshot  of  the  meat  trouble,  the 
fact  will  remain  that  the  strike  was  audaciously  promoted  and  carried  on 
in  the  hope  of  compelling  submission  to  the  men's  demands  by  the  semi- 
starvation  of  the  people  of  the  city  and  suburbs,  who,  in  common  with 
the  rest  of  the  community,  have  paid  out  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
pounds  in  financing  concessions  to  unionists  under  the  Arbitration  Act 
as  the  supposed  price  of  industrial  peace.  The  tactics  of  the  employees 
are  by  no  means  new,  unfortunately,  but  in  this  case  they  have  involved 
deprivation  of  an  essential  article  of  diet.  Stopping  the  meat  supplies 
doubtless  appeared  to  the  strikers  a  sure  way  of  bringing  the  public  to 
its  knees,  and  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  suspension  of  the  trade  has 
been  very  sorely  felt,  especially  by  that  great  number  of  people  who  have 
been  unable  to  obtain  meat  during  the  crisis.  If  the  union  could  have 
its  Way  there  would  be  still  more  suffering.  That  is  indicated  by  the 
course  taken  at  Lithgow,  where  the  local  branch  of  the  union  has  com- 
pelled the  master  butchers,  under  threat  of  a  strike,  to  desist  from  send- 
ing bulk  consignments  of  meat  to  Sydney.  An  utterly  callous  and 
impudent  attempt  is  therefore  being  made  to  prevent  Sydney  having  any 
meat  from  the  shops — made  locally  by  the  strikers,  and  sympathetically 
by  union  branches  in  other  parts  of  the  State.  This  is  in  line  with  what 
happened  during  the  Brisbane  strike,  when  the  leaders  of  the  blockade  de- 
clared that  not  a  loaf  of  bread  should  be  sold  without  their  consent. 
In  addition  to  paying  good  wages,  the  master  butchers  had  up  to  yester- 
day been  keeping  only  a  few  depots  open  for  the  sale  of  meat.  They 
had  not  employed  non-amionist  labor  or  been  aggressive  towards  the 
strikers  in  any  way.  Their  whole  offence  was  that  they  were  trying  to 
let  the  public  have  the  benefit  of  whatever  meat  could  be  got  into  these 
few  shops  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  workmen  throughout  the  business 
and  industry  were  striking  right  and  left.  That  was  what  the  strikers 
desired  above  all  to  prevent.  Their  success  depended  on  their  ability 
to  stand  between  the  public  and  its  food.  It  is  a  remarkable  and  gratify- 
ing testimony  to  the  public's  keen  appreciation  of  all  this  that  there  has 
been  no  sign  of  yielding  to  unionism's  resort  to  -what,  if  anything,  is 
worse  than  brute  force.  It  has  been  recognized  that  once  such  tyrannical 
tactics  were  permitted  to  succeed  they  would  be  repeated  in  other  indus- 
tries until  the  community  would  never  be  certain  from  day  to  day  of 
being  supplied  with  the  things  it  must  have.  Hence  the  quiet  process  of 
the  strike  and  the  patience  with  which  the  public  has  withstood  its 
bullying  pressure. 

But  it  is  one  thing  to  resist  a  despotic  and  callous  strike,  and 
another  to  go  on  giving  legislative  benefits  to  unionists  who  are  always 
ready  to  turn  savagely  upon  those  who  bear  the  cost  of  practically  every 
concession  they  get.  That  wages  would  have  gone  up  during  the  past 
ten  or  twelve  years  if  there  had  been  no  arbitration^  laws  is  true  enough, 
so  far  as  may  be  judged.  But  the  increments  that  have  been  made  were 
obtained  more  expeditiously  and  systematically  because  of  arbitration, 
which  has  also  given  unionism  new  and  unexpected  force  by  facilitating 
organization.  Actually,  therefore,  the  very  Act  which  was  to  be  the 
means  of  establishing  peace  has  been  used  and  is  being  used  as  a  weapon 
of  war  against  the  community  which  put  it  into  labor's  hands.  As  has 
been  said,  it  has  cost  the  public  an  enormous  amount  of  money,  for 
seldom,  if  ever,  are  wages  raised,  hours  shortened,  or  any  other  considbra- 
tions  given  to  workers  in  an  industry  but  the  price  of  the  commodity 
produced  or  handled  goes  up  in  sympathy.  This  burden  has  been  borne 
cheerfully  enough.  What  has  made  itself  drearily  evident,  however,  is 
that  the  compact  is  utterly  false.  Too  many  employees  will  take  all  they 
can  get  from  the  public  and  strike  again  whenever  they  think  fit.  They 
have  no  compunction,  no  sense  of  industrial  honesty,  no  consideration 
for  anyone  but  themselves.  The  law  is  nothing  to  them.  They  will 

39 


ignore  it  or  defy  it  as  the  whim  takes  them.  And  the  Labor  Govern- 
ment, not  daring  to  do  its  palpable  duty  where  it  might  injure  the  good 
unionists  who  put  the  party  in  power,  declares  that  effect  cannot  be 
given  to  the  law  or  action  be  taken  for  its  infringement  because  the 
employers  are  withholding  evidence.  The  employers  are  naturally  dis- 
inclined to  take  proceedings  which  would  still  further  embitter  their 
relations  with  the  men — which  after  all  is  a  better  motive  than  that  which 
keeps  the  Government  quiet  when  it  is  not  frantically  making  "proposals" 
and  new  "proposals"  in  the  hope  of  enabling  the  strikers  to  claim  some 
meretricious  victory  as  the  result  of  lawbreaking.  But  that  the  Minis- 
terial position  is  at  once  feeble  and  audacious  is  the  more  reason  why 
the  public  should  protect  itself  firmly  and  promptly.  This  Arbitration 
Act  is  a  huge,  expensive  sham.  However  good  the  intention  behind  it, 
in  operation  it  has  proved  a  bogus  piece  of  political  quackery.  Workers 
will  not  conform  to  it,  and  the  Government  dares  not  put  it  into  opera- 
tion— as  could  so  easily  be  done  in  the  present  instance  by  instituting 
prosecutions  and  subpoenaing  employers,  which  would  be  done  quickly 
enough  if  the  offenders  were  not  unionists.  And  even  if  strikers  were 
prosecuted  and  fined  we  do  not  know  that  anybody  would  be  better  off 
or  industrial  continuity  any  nearer.  Certainly  there  would  still  be  strikes 
if  there  was  no  Act,  but  the  community  could  not  be  worse  off  than  it  is 
now,  and  it  would  l)e  properly  relieved  of  substantial  financial  responsi- 
bility if  the  Act  were  wiped  out  for  the  brazen  delusion  that  it  has 
proved  to  be. 


ORGANIZE  TO  FIGHT  LABOR. 

Quirindi,  Tuesday. 

March  n. — Speaking  at  a  meeting  of  the  Farmers  and  Settlers' 
Association  at  Wallabadah,  Mr.  P.  P.  Abbott,  M.  H.  R.,  said  that  there 
was  never  greater  occasion  for  those  engaged  in  rural  industries  to  or- 
ganise and  combat  the  one-sided  legislation  of  the  Labor  Party.  The 
fight  of  the  future  would  be  the  country  versus  the  city. 

Mr.  Frank  Chaffey,  member  for  Tamworth,  also  spoke.  He  was 
proud  to  consider  himself  one  of  the  band  of  country  representatives 
who  had  decided  to  fight  for  the  rights  of  the  country  people,  and  was 
pleased  to  think  that  he  already  had  been  able  to  raise  a  squeal.  If 
trades-unionism,  which  was  characterized  as  the  greatest  of  all  monopo- 
lies, got  control  of  affairs,  the  cost  of  production  would  be  greater  than 
the  value  of  the  product. 

If  there  were  no  other  references  than  those  contained  in 
the  foregoing  quotations  from  Sydney  dailies,  during  a  period 
of  ten  days,  it  would  doubtless  be  admitted  that  the  industrial 
millennium,  if  existing  anywhere,  did  not  prevail  in  that  Com- 
monwealth, notwithstanding  the  fact  that  it  has  been  accredited 
with  being  a  "Land  of  No  Strikes."  But  the  above  quotations 
represent  a  very  insignificant  portion  of  strike  and  other  labor 
discord  items.  However,  as  we  arrived  in  Sydney  March  2d 
and  sailed  for  New  Zealand  March  I2th  it  is  fitting  that  we  leave 
further  reference  to  Sydney  newspapers  until  our  return  there 
two  months  later,  and  that  further  reference  to  the  daily  press 
be  taken  up  in  the  order  of  our  visits  to  the  various  cities  in 
Australasia.  Therefore,  our  next  stay  being  in  Auckland,  a 
few  quotations  from  the  press  of  that  city  will  be  in  order. 

40 


FROM  THE  AUCKLAND  HERALD. 

NEW  ZEALAND  STRIKE. 

MORAL  TO  BE  DRAWN. 

(From  our  own  correspondent.) 

London,  February  6. 

March  16. — Commenting  on  the  recent  strike  in  New  Zealand,  the 
Shipping  Gazette  says  : 

"The  moral  of  the  strike  is  sufficiently  obvious.  It  is  that  coolness 
and -courage,  and  above  all  thoroughness,  in  dealing  with  this  form  of 
mania — for  it  is  hardly  less — are  invaluable  assets.  The  triumph  of  the 
New  Zealand  Ministry  was  in  no  sense  the  result  of  the  indiscriminate 
use  of  force.  It  was  the  outcome  of  a  quiet  determination  to  give  all 
possible  support  to  a  community  which  was  determined  that  its  existence 
should  not  be  imperilled  by  the  cutting  off  of  its  oversea  communica- 
tions. The  defeat  of  syndicalism  has  been  so  complete  that  it  will  be 
long  before  it  tries  conclusions  again  in  the  Dominion." 

NEW  ZEALAND  DISPUTE. 

Sydney,  March  14. 

March  16. — The  New  Zealand  strike-leader,  Mr.  Robert  Semple, 
was  a  passenger  by  the  Maunganui.  He  said  yesterday  that  the  indus- 
trial organizations  in  the  Dominion  received  a  severe  blow  during  the 
recent  strike,  but  were  not  defeated 

STRIKES  UNDER  LABOUR  RULE. 

March  17. — The  assertion  that  the  success  of  Labour  as  a  political 
organisation  brings  industrial  peace  to  a  country  is  stigmatised  by  Mr. 
Joseph  Cook  (Prime  Minister  of  Australia)  as  a  hollow  mockery. 
Mr.  Cook  says  that  labour  rule  in  New  South  Wales  has  been  signalised 
by"  the  fratricidal  policy  of  striking  and  the  creation  of  class  hatred. 
Statistics  bear  out  Mr.  Cook's  indictment  in  a  manner  in  which  they 
seldom  justify  a  party  criticism.  Detailed  returns  have  been  prepared 
by  the  Commonwealth  Statistician  (an  independent  and  reliable  authority) 
of  the  industrial  disputes  which  took  place  in  Australia  during  the  past 
year.  These  are  certainly  remarkable  in  that  they  represent  New  South 
Wales,  where  a  Labour  Government  has  been  continuously  in  office  as  a 
sort  of  industrial  cockpit  for  the  disputes  of  the  Commonwealth.  The 
estimated  loss  of  wages  over  the  whole  of  Australia  was  £288,101,  and 
of  this  sum  no  less  than  £208,468,  or  72  per  cent,  was  lost  in  disputes 
in  New  South  Wales.  The  two  States  most  fairly  comparable  in  point 
of  population  and  commercial  importance  are  New  South  Wales  and 
Victoria,  but  in  point  of  industrial  disputes  during  1913  there  is  no  com- 
parison. The  number  of  disputes  in  New  South  Wales  was  134,  against 
2Q  in  Victoria,  the  workers  involved  numbered  40,011  in  New  South 
Wales,  against  6,177  in  Victoria,  the  days  lost  447,979  against  77,587,  and 
the  estimated  loss  of  wages  was  £20^,468  in  New  South  Wales  against 
£32,596  in  Victoria.  These  figures  show  that  a  concomitant  of  Labour 
rule  in  New  South  Wales  has  been  labour  upheavals.  The  industrial 
laws,  including  some  passed  by  the  Labour  Government,  have  frequently 
been  flagrantly  broken,  and  within  the  past  few  weeks  a  large  body  of 
men  have  laid  themselves  open  to  prosecution  for  industrial  lawlessness. 
It  might  be  supposed,  and  it  is  often  suggested  by  theorists,  that  when  a 
Labour  Government  is  in  power  workers  will  seek  to  improve  their  con- 
dition and  remedy  their  grievances  by  Parliamentary  action,  knowing 
that  the  machinery  of  Government  is  in  sympathetic  hands.  Experience 
proves  the  opposite  to  be  the  case.  The  extreme  section  of  the  workers 
usually  tastes  disillusionment  when  their  party  gains  Parliamentary 
ascendency.  They  find  that  the  economic  laws  continue  to  operate  and 


the  millennium  they  expected  has  not  come.  Relying  on  a  sympathetic 
Government  not  to  punish  them  they  presume  to  violate  the  industrial 
laws,  if  it  suits  their  purpose,  careless  that  the  prestige  of  the  Govern- 
ment suffers  by  their  action.  The  first  thing  that  will  bring  more  settled 
conditions  in  New  South  Wales  will  be  the  enforcement  of  the  industrial 
law  impartially  as  between  employer  and  employee.  So  long  as  the 
Labour  Government  winks  at  breaches  by  workers  so  long  will  unrest 
continue. 

PUNISHMENT  SOUGHT. 

FOR  OFFENDING  UNIONS.    ECHO  OF  THE  STRIKE. 
(By  Telegraph — Press  Association.) 

Wellington,  Tuesday. 

March  18. — A  deputation  representing  the  Citizens  Committee  which 
acted  during  the  strike  awaited  on  the  Minister  for  Justice  yesterday 
and  drew  attention  to  the  fact  that  a  number  of  unions  which  went  on 
strike  recently  in  defiance  of  the  Arbitration  Act,  in  sympathy  with 
watersiders  and  others,  had  not  been  prosecuted.  It  was  pointed  out 
that  there  were  18  such  unions  in  New  Zealand,  and  the  deputation  urged 
that  the  law  ought  to  be  put  in  action  against  them. 

The  Minister  said  that  the  duty  of  instituting  proceedings  under 
the  Arbitration  Act  did  not  rest  with  his  Department,  but  with  the 
Labour  Department.  He  undertook  to  inform  the  Minister  for  Labour 
of  what  the  deputation  had  represented. 

The  following  editorial  which  relates  to  Australian  politics 
will  not  appear  as  out  of  place  here  as  it  relates  to  matters  of 
Parliament,  in  which  the  labor  question  is  the  prime  factor.  It 
is  both  interesting  and  instructive,  and  forecasts  a  result  that 
has  since  happened,  namely,  the  double  dissolution  of  Parlia- 
ment; the  bills  upon  which  the  dissolution  was  ordered  being 
a  bill  to  repeal  preference  to  unionism  in  Government  work, 
and  a  bill  to  establish  the  right  to  vote  at  elections  by  letter,  or 
mail,  in  cases  of  inability  to  attend  the  polls  in  person. 

POLITICS  IN  AUSTRALIA. 

March  20. — The  suggestion  made  by  a  Labour  member  of  the  Aus- 
tralian House  of  Representatives  that  the  Governor-General's  resignation 
was  precipitated  by  the  political  situation  is  too  absurd  to  be  seriously 
considered.  The  Australian  Federal  Parliament,  unlike  other  British 
Parliaments,  is  subject  to  a  written  constitution,  and  the  even  balance  of 
parties  in  the  House  of  Representatives  presents  no  difficult  problems  for 
the  Governor-General  such  as  migjit  arise  in  other  countries.  The  posi- 
tion has  been  further  simplified  in  recent  months  by  the  Labour  leaders 
accepting  as  inevitable  the  dissolution  of  both  branches  of  the  Legisla- 
ture, which  the  Government  has  been  fighting  for  ever  since  it  came  into 
office.  The  Federal  elections  held  in  June  last  year  gave  the  Liberals  a 
bare  majority  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  Mr.  Cook  succeeded 
Mr.  Fisher  as  Prime  Minister  of  Australia.  The  Labor  Party,  however, 
continued  to  command  a  majority  in  the  Senate,  and  the  result  was  that 
the  first  session  of  the  new  Parliament  yielded  no  harvest  of  Liberal 
legislation.  The  measures  passed  by  the  House  of  Representatives,  after 
a  struggle,  were  rejected  or  mutilated  by  the  Senate,  and  Mr.  Cook  has 
been  a  Prime  Minister  with  administrative  power,  but  no  legislative 
authority.  Such  a  position  is  clearly  intolerable.  The  Constitution  pro- 
vides that  if  the  Senate  twice  rejects,  or  amends  in  a  manner  to  which 

42 


the  House  of  Representatives  will  not  agree,  any  bill  twice  passed  by 
the  House,  the  Governor-General  may  dissolve  the  two  Chambers  simul- 
taneously. This  is  probably  what  will  happen  within  the  next  few 
months.  The  second  session  of  Parliament  opens  shortly,  and  the  meas- 
ures, or  some  of  the  measures,  rejected  by  the  Senate  last  session  will  be 
sent  back  to  it.  The  Senate  will  almost  certainly  reject  them,  and 
Mr,  Cook's  appeal  for  a  double  dissolution  cannot  then  be  denied.  It 
would  suit  the  Labour  Party  very  much  better  to  have  a  dissolution  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  only,  leaving  them  still  in  command  of  the 
Senate.  This  would  be  the  course  of  events  if  Labour  could  snatch  a 
majority  in  the  House,  but  it  is  unlikely  Mr.  Fisher  will  be  able  to  outwit 
the  vigilance  of  the  slightly  stronger  Liberal  Party.  A  double  dissolution 
will  probably  increase  the  Liberal  majority  in  the  House;  but  it  is  doubt- 
ful whether  the  Senate  will  be  captured  from  the  Labour  Party.  The 
deadlock  would  not  in  these  circumstances  be  ended.  The  Constitution 
contains  an  ingenious  clause  to  permit  of  some  progress  being  made  with 
legislation  during  the  continuance  of  such  a  deadlock.  If  the  Senate 
again  disagrees  with  the  House  on  a  particular  measure,  the  Governor- 
General  may  summon  a  joint  sitting  of  the  two  Chambers,  and  the 
decision  of  an  absolute  majority  of  the  members  present  has  the  force 
of  law.  It  might  happen  that  the  Labour  Party  would  command  this 
majority,  despite  its  minority  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  it 
would  then  be  able  to  give  legislation  a  character  approved  by  it,  but 
distasteful  to  the  Prime  Minister.  Such  a  situation  would  be  unprece- 
dented. 

FROM  THE  AUCKLAND  STAR. 

POLITICAL  EFFRONTERY. 

LABOUR'S  CLAIM  TO  PEACE. 

(Received  10.10  A.  M.) 

Sydney,  this  day. 

March  16. — Mr.  Joseph  Cook  (Federal  Premier)  speaking  at  Sand- 
ringham,  considered  Mr.  Holman's  figures  concerning  New  South  Wales' 
light  taxation  a  piece  of  sheer  political  effrontery.  There  never  was  a 
more  hollow  mockery  than  to  assert  that  the  three  years  of  Labour  rule 
had  given  industrial  peace.  Labour  rule  had  been  signalised  by  the 
fratricidal  policy  of  striking  and  the  creation  of  class  hatred,  which 
was  increasing  in  New  South  Wales.  This  feeling  had  reduced  the 
effectiveness  of  the  working  man's  wages." 

The  following  will  serve  as  a  reminder  of  some  of  the  in- 
tricacies and  annoyances  created  by  the  system  of  industrial 
legislation  in  Australasia.  It  is  next  to  impossible  for  the  aver- 
age citizen,  employing  a  servant  or  two,  to  keep  informed  as  to 
the  awards  of  the  various  Wages  Boards  and  the  changes  that 
are,  from  time  to  time,  made  in  the  same,  or  whether  setting  a 
servant  at  washing  plates,  for  example,  will  violate  some  rule  by 
which  the  servant  should  only  be  required  to  wash  pans,  but 
the  channel  through  which  they  frequently  become  informed  in 
the  premises,  is  illustrated  in  the  following  example: 

HOTEL  WORKERS'  DUTIES. 
MISTRESS  AND  MAID  FINED. 

March  16. — Mr.  C.  C.  Kettle,  S.  M.,  gave  judgment  this  afternoon  in 
the  case  in  which  the  Inspector  of  Awards  (Mr.  E.  W.  F.  Gohns)  pro- 

43 


ceeded  against  Miss  Helen  Cooper,  a  restaurant  keeper  (Mr.  M.  G. 
McGregor),  for  employing  a  young  woman  as  a  second  cook  and  paying 
her  22s.  a  week  instead  of  305.  The  employee,  Miss  W.  Senkup,  was 
also  sued  for  failing  to  claim  the  award  wage.  The  point  in  dispute  was 
whether  the  employees'  duties  in  the  kitchen  were  those  of  a  kitchen 
maid  or  a  cook. 

His  Worship  considered  that  the  employee  had  undoubtedly  done 
work  which  the  award  stated  that  a  cook  should  do.  In  her  evidence 
she  had  said  that  she  did  not  know  that  the  award  provided  a  wage  of 
305.  for  such  work,  but  she  remarked  that  "she  had  a  father  to  keep," 
and  this  was  perhaps  an  indication  of  the  state  of  her  mind.  Each  de- 
fendant would  be  fined  305.  In  giving  judgment  his  Worship  again  drew 
attention  to  the  necessity  for  preparing  clearly  printed  schedules  of 
duties  and  placing  them  where  they  could  be  seen  by  all  the  employees  in 
an  hotel  or  restaurant. 

While  the  above  example  relates  to  hotels  and  restaurants 
it  clearly  points  out  the  necessity  for  all  employers,  large  or 
small,  as  well  as*  employees,  to  keep  themselves  informed  as  to 
Wages  Boards  awards,  and  to  be  continually  on  the  watch  that 
in  every  detail  the  same  are  strictly  adhered  to,  otherwise,  as 
shown  by  the  above  reference,  they  are  liable  to  be  summoned 
before  a  Court  and  fined.  The  system  is  particularly  annoying 
to  employers  who  conduct  a  business  made  up  of  miscellaneous 
parts  and  requiring  the  service  of  employees  representing  various 
divisions  of  Wages  Boards  awards,  as  many  do,  and  especially 
in  cases  where  employees  are  by  the  very  nature  of  their  em- 
ployment required  to  shift  from  job  to  job  or  stand  idly  by  while 
certain  work  is  performed  by  entirely  unnecessary  additional 
help,  or  where  the  business  is  not  of  sufficient  magnitude  to 
justify  a  specific  distribution  of  service  among  its  employees. 
This  constant  fear  of  prosecution  for  violation  of  Wages  Boards 
awards,  even  though  unwittingly,  is  not  conducive  to  the  peace 
of  mind  of  an  employer  of  labor,  who  in  most  cases  of  prose- 
cution is  the  victim,  and,  besides,  the  system  encourages  idleness 
and  augments  economic  waste. 

FROM  THE  WELLINGTON  TIMES. 

THE  SIX-DAY  WEEK. 

FOR  AUCKLAND  HOTEL  WORKERS. 

(Press  Association.) 

Auckland,  March  31. 

April  I. — An  agreement  on  all  but  one  of  points  at  issue  between 
the  Hotel  and  Restaurants  Workers'  Union  (old  union)  and  Licensed 
Houses  Workers'  Union  (new  union)  on  the  one  hand  and  the  Licensed 
Victuallers'  Association  on  the  other  has  been  arrived  at.  The  new 
union  has  been  swamped  by  members  of  the  old  union,  who  recently 
threw  out  the  strike-breaking  executive  and  installed  officers  who  repudi- 
ated on  legal  grounds  the  agreement  made  with  the  employers  in  Decem- 
ber and  co-operated  with  the  old  union  in  applying  to  the  Arbitration 
Court  for  an  award.  The  employers  accepted  the  position  with  a  good 
grace,  and  conferences  were  held  with  the  result  stated. 

44 


The  Arbitration  Court  was  informed  today  that  the  only  point  now 
in  dispute  related  to  the  six-day  week. 

Mr.  Justice  Stringer  said  the  Court  intended  taking  the  amendment 
to  the  Shops  and  Offices  Act  as  mandatory,  and  introducing  the  six-day 
week  into  all  future  awards  relating  to  hotel  and  restaurant  workers. 

This  clears  the  way  for  the  final  settlement  of  the  whole  dispute. 

SYDNEY  STREETS. 

COST  OF  CLEANING  "A  STAGGERER." 
(By  Telegraph — Press  Association — Copyright.) 

Sydney,  March  20. 

March  21. — The  town  clerk  has  reported  to  the  City  Council  that 

the  cost  of  cleaning   Sydney  has  risen  from  £38,658  in   1905  to  £100,634 

in  1913.     The  mileage  of  the  streets  has  increased  only  from  113  to  134 

miles.     Increases  in  wages  are  largely  responsible  for  the  increased  cost. 

Aldermen  describe  the  statement  as  a  staggerer. 

SYDNEY  TRAMWAYS. 

DEFICIT  FOR   YEAR,   £61,038. 

(By  Telegraph — Press  Association — Copyright.) 
(Received  March  20,  9.50  p.  M.) 

Sydney,  March  20. 

March  21. — The  Premier  supplied  in  the  Legislative  Assembly  a 
statement  from  the  Railway  Commissioners  showing  the  tramway  re- 
turns for  the  year  1912-1913  as  follows:  Earnings,  £1,754,566;  expendi- 
tures, £1,572,190;  interest  on  capital  invested,  £214,832;  deficit,  £32,456; 
estimated  deficit  for  the  year  ending  June  3Oth,  £61,038. 

FROM  THE  WELLINGTON  POST. 

THE  LABOUR  MARKET. 
To  the  Editor: 

March  27. — Sir, — May  I  ask  through  your  columns  what  is  going  to 
be  done  to  provide  employment  for  the  new  arrivals  in  New  Zealand? 
At  present  there  is  not  sufficient  work  for  men  already  settled  here.  I  have 
to  keep  a  small  boarding  house  as  my  husband  is  out  of  work,  and  two  of 
my  boarders  are  out  of  work,  and  it  is  quite  heart-breaking.  They  start 
off  in  search  of  a  job  every  morning,  and  all  line  in  again  about  12 
o'clock— No  luck;  can't  find  a  job.  One  of  them  tried  up  country.  He 
got  a  job  from  a  local  registry  office — bush  felling;  he  started  off  for 
Featherston,  the  nearest  railway  station ;  the  camp  was  7s.  6d.  coach  ride 
from  the  station.  When  he  arrived  on  the  scene  he  found  there  was 
another  fourteen  miles  to  walk  from  the  coach,  through  bush,  and  over 
hills,  and  across  creeks,  etc.  He  said  he  would  not  have  minded  all  that 
if  the  camp  had  been  decent,  but  they  had  to  shoot  wild  pig  for  meat, 
or  whatever  was  about.  There  was  no  milk,  only  boards  to  lie  on,  and 
no  conveniences  to  get  a  wash.  He  was  so  disgusted  that  after  he  had 
taken  a  rest,  he  set  off  to  walk  back  to  the  coach  again.  I  ask,  Is  there 
any  encouragement  for  me»  to  go  up  country?  My  brother  came  to  New 
Zealand  last  August,  with  the  object  of  going  on  a  farm  to  work.  He 
went  up  to  Taihape  and  Inglewood  in  answer  to  an  advertisement,  and 
found  the  jobs  did  not  exist.  When  he  got  up  there,  he  tried  several 
different  places,  and  at  last  packed  up  and  went  back  to  England,  while 
he  had  the  money  to  pay  his  fare.  New  Zealand  is  cracked  up  so  good 
at  home  in  England  that  people  think  it  is  easy  to  get  work  here,  but 
my  husband  has  been  here  two  years,  and  is  still  no  better  off  as  far  as 
work  is  concerned.  I  have  no  doubt  there  are  plenty  more  men  the  same. 

45 


We  are  told  to  keep  the  cradles  full,  but  I  ask  what  encouragement  have 
we  to  bring  children  into  the  world  when  we  are  practically  living  from 
hand  to  mouth.  Why  does  New  Zealand  cry  out  for  more  emigrants  and 
more  population  when  it  cannot  give  work  to  the  people  already  here? 
I  don't  know  what  we  shall  do  in  the  winter  time.  I  have  to  work  hard 
all  day  to  keep  things  going.  Hoping  you  will  find  room  for  this  letter,— 
I  am,  etc. 

A  WORKING  MAN'S  WIFE. 

A  UNION'S  TYRANNY. 

April  i. — Mr.  D.  Mpriarty,  the  modest  secretary  of  the  Wellington 
Furniture  Union,  in  this  issue  severely  scolds  The  Post  for  an  unpardon- 
able piece  of  forgetfulness;  the  difference  between  a  Wellington  with 
Mr.  Moriarty  and  a  Wellington  without  Mr.  Moriarty  was  not  noticed,  and 
the  dreadful  sequel  is  a  charge  by  the  irate  magnate  that  The  Post  lacks 
"common  decency."  However,  before  The  Post  applies  itself  to  the  task  of 
framing  a  suitable  apology  to  the  incensed  secretary,  it  must  discuss  a 
matter  which  is  of  more  importance  to  the  public,  though,  perhaps,  of  less 
concern  to  the  irate  Mr.  Moriarty.  This  is  the  reported  persecution  of  a 
member  of  the  Furniture  Union  by  other  members,  who  have  been  encour- 
aged by  the  secretary  in  their  attitude,  according  to  the  official's  statement. 
Whatever  Mr.  Moriarty  may  have  done  or  said  in  the  past,  there  is  no 
possibility  of  mistaking  the  tone  of  his  letter  in  today's  Post.  It  is 
practically  approval  of  the  tactics  already  pursued  and  an  incitement 
to  the  men  to  continue  the  victimisation  of  a  cabinet-maker  who  dared 
to  accept  work  on  the  wharf  during  the  strike,  when  he  was  unable  to 
find  an  engagement  at  his  trade.  First  of  all,  the  impetuous  secretary 
brushes  aside  as  a  negligible  trifle  the  statement  made  by  the  union's 
president,  Mr.  Kennedy,  last  week.  This  officer  was  questioned  before 
the  man's  complaint  was  published,  and  the  two  versions  appeared  to- 
gether. If  the  union  had  decided  to  buy  strike  "solidarity"  at  the 
price  of  3s.  a  week  ("to  prevent  any  member  from  going  to  work  on  the 
wharves"),  why  did  not  Mr.  Kennedy  mention  this  bonus  scheme?  The 
member  concerned  says  that  he  knew  nothing  about  the  offer.  All  that 
he  knew  definitely  was  that  he  was  out  of  work,  and  he  tried  to  find  a 
suitable  billet  in  city  factories  before  he  went  to  the  waterside. 

"We  do  believe,"  says  Mr.  Moriarty,  "that  it  is  an  unpardonable 
offence  for  any  man  to  take  on  the  work  of  another  who  has  been  forced 
out  of  work."  Who  "forced"  the  Wellington  water-siders  out  of  work? 
Who  "forced"  them  to  have  their  "stop-work"  meeting?  Who  "forced" 
them  to  flout  a  good  agreement?  It  is  very  well  known  now  that  the 
strikers  deliberately  chose  the  "stop-work"  method,  and  thus  treated 
their  agreement  with  contempt.  Is  that  the  sort  of  strike  for  which  the 
Furniture  Union  is  prepared  to  persecute  one  of  its  members? 
Mr.  Moriarty,  with  a  perversity  which  suggests  that  he  is  more  or 
less  consciously  flattering  Mr.  P.  Hickey  by  imitating  his  inventiveness, 
has  made  another  glaring  misuse  of  the  word  "force,"  thus: — "If  you 
are  successful  in  getting  the  employers  to  force  us  out  on  strike."  This 
is  grim  humour,  surely  not  altogether  unconscious.  The  unionists  in  this 
case  are  aspiring  to  be  the  "master  class."  They  have,  in  effect,  dared 
the  employers  to  take  on  the  black-listed  member  whom  the  autocratic 
secretary  addressed  as  an  "ex-cabinetmaker.".  The  persecutors,  not  the 
employers,  have  made  the  challenge,  and  Mr.  Moriarty  has  thrown  out 
sundry  sinister  hints  of  boycott.  But,  of  course,  that  is  not  "force." 
It  is  only  the  punishment  of  the  "unpardonable  offence"  of  a  unionist 
against  an  intolerable  conspiracy  of  Syndicalism.  This  word  does  not 
lose  "nastiness,"  but  acquires  more,  by  the  methods  of  the  Furniture 
Union's  members.  The  Red  Federals  are  straight-out  Syndicalists;  the 
Furniture  Union  has,  on  the  facts  published,  laid  itself  open  to  the 
allegation  of  being  an  aider  and  abettor  of  Syndicalism  by  devious  ways. 

46 


Is  the  Furniture  Workers'  Trust  or  Combine  strong  enough  already  to 
dictate  to  the  employers?  Who  are  the  actual  employers  and  who  are 
the  employed?  That  question  arises  from  Mr.  Moriarty's  letter. 

FROM   THE  CHRISTCHURCH  PRESS. 

STRIKING  UNIONS. 

April  3. — Is  the  Labour  Department  going  to  prosecute  the  unions 
or  unionists  working  under  Arbitration  Court  awards  who  went  on 
strike  in  November  last,  and  thus  committed  a  breach  of  the  Industrial 
Conciliation  and  Arbitration  Act?"  asks  the  "Post."  "The  question  is  one 
which  raises  some  very  important  issues,  and  the  decision  of  the  Depart- 
ment is  awaited  with  the  keenest  interest,  not  only  by  the  offending 
unions,  but  also  by  the  employers  and  the  new  unions  which  were  formed 
to  replace  several  of  the  Arbitration  bodies  which,  though  unaffiliated, 
responded  to  the  call  of  the  Red  Federation.  If  the  Department  decides 
to  proceed,  the  prosecutions  will  comprise  the  biggest  batch  that  have 
yet  been  launched  at  any  one  time  within  the  history  of  New  Zealand, 
no  fewer  than  18  Arbitration  unions,  with  some  8,000  to  9,000  members, 
being  involved.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  Department  decides  not  to 
take  action,  the  following  issues,  it  is  contended,  will  demand  an  imme- 
diate solution:  (i)  What  is  the  use  of  imposing  penalties  under  the 
Arbitration  Act  when  they  are  not  enforced?  (2)  What  is  to  be  the 
fate  of  the  new  unions  which  were  formed  to  replace  the  Arbitration 
unions  which  went  out  on  strike?" 

From  inquiries  made  by  a  "Post"  reporter  today,  it  would  appear 
that  the  latter  question  is  at  present  greatly  troubling  both  the  employers 
and  the 'members  of  the  old  and  new  unions  alike.  At  least  three  bodies 
of  workers  are  affected,  viz.,  the  Wellington  drivers,  the  Auckland  hotel 
workers,  and  the  Christchurch  drivers.  In  all  three  cases  dual  Arbitra- 
tion unions — those  which  went  out  on  strike  and  those  which  were 
formed  subsequently — exist,  and  the  puzzling  situation  is  created  as  to 
which  unions  hold  the  field.  No  one  seems  to  know,  and,  as  a  result, 
hopeless  confusion  prevails,  the  employers  not  knowing  which  union  to 
deal  with,  and  the  men  being  equally  in  the  dark  as  to  which  union  they 
are  to  pay  their  subscriptions  to.  Some  of  the  Wellington  drivers,  it  is 
stated,  have  solved  the  riddle  for  themselves  by  declining  to  pay  into 
either  union  until  they  know  where  they  are.  If  the  Labour  Department 
decides  to  take  proceedings  against  the  old  unions  for  striking,  and 
secures  convictions,  the  position  will  be  much  simplified. 

If  the  Department  is  to  take  action,  however,  and  thereby  ,solve  the 
situation,  it  will  require  to  act  promptly,  as  under  the  Act  it  is  provided 
that  a  prosecution  in  case  of  a  strike  cannot  take  place  after  the  expira- 
tion of  six  months  from  the  date  of  the  cause  of  action,  and  in  the 
present  instance  five  months  have  elapsed  since  the  first  union  went  on 
strike. 

FROM  THE  OTAGO  DAILY  TIMES. 
(Dunedin,  N.  Z.) 

The  following  is  an  excerpt  from  an  address  by  the  Hon. 
F.  M.  B.  Fisher,  Minister  for  Customs,  at  Wellington,  April  3rd: 

When  the  Minister  got  the  audience  again  he  said  the  meeting  sug- 
gested to  him  an  interesting  electoral  reform,  and  that  was  to  disfran- 
chise every  man  who  attempted  to  break  up  a  public  meeting.  The  sug- 
gestion received  a  mixed  reception.  Continuing,  Mr.  Fisher  said  that 
they  would  thus  prevent  the  people,  who  did  not  respect  the  laws  from 
making  them.  These  men  must  not  get  the  idea  into  their  heads  that 
they  could  frighten  or  terrorise  the  Government.  *  *  * 

47 


He  said  the  secret  ballot  had  taken  away  much  of  the  power  which 
the  agitator  possessed  at  the  present  time.  They  were  going  to  give 
every  working  man  the  right  to  live,  and  the  right  to  exercise  his  judg- 
ment free  and  unfettered,  and  without  the  intimidation  that  had  been 
carried  out  in  this  town  during  the  last  12  months.  The  Government  had 
some  concern,  not  only  for  the  people  who  voluntarily  went  on  strike,  but 
also  for  the  people  who  were  forced  out  on  strike  against  their  will, 
and  it  was  necessary  for  the  Government  also  to  take  into  consideration 
the  wives  and  children  who  had  suffered  on  account  of  the  strike. 

A  Voice:    "All  the  rats." 

Mr.  Fisher:     "Are  you  referring  to  your  friends?" 

Continuing,  Mr.  Fisher  said  that  the  action  of  the  Government  had 
utterly  destroyed  the  Federation  of  Labour. — (Applause  and  boohooing.) 
When  order  was  somewhat  restored  Mr.  Fisher  said  they  had  heard  it 
stated  that  the  Opposition  Party  was  going  to  ally  itself  with  the  Social 
Democrats.  He  first  wanted  to  point  out  what  it  was  these  men  stood 
for.  They  stood  for  the  red  flag  against  the  Union  Jack,  they  stood 
for  anarchy  and  revolution  against  order,  and  their  Socialism  led  them 
in  the  direction  cf  entirely  destroying  family  life.  They  respected  not 
law  nor  order.  This  was  a  signal  for  cheers  and  groans.  "You  will  find," 
he  continued,  "that  the  time  has  come  when  the  voice  of  this  country  is 
against  these  people.  They  may  band  themselves  together,  they  may  take 
control  of  our  public  meetings,  they  may  even  ally  themselves  with  the 
Opposition,  but  even  then  they  cannot  win.  Public  opinion  in  this  coun- 
try is  too  British  to  allow  them  to  win, —  (Applause  and  hooting.)  They 
come  here  led  by  foreigners,  allied  by — 

A  portion  of  the  audience  then  started  to  count  out  the  speaker. 

How  THE  MONEY  GOES. 

April  4. — New  South  Wales  is  dominated  by  Labour  Socialists. 
Neither  Premier  Holman  nor  any  member  of  his  Cabinet  is  a  free 
agent.  In  common  with  the  other  members  of  the  Labour  Party  who 
have  obtained  seats  in  Parliament,  they  must  follow  the  behests  of  the 
irresponsible  caucus,  which,  sitting  outside  of  Parliament,  is  the  real 
overlord  dominating  members  and  Ministers  of  the  Crown  alike.  And 
this  caucus  is  responsible  neither  to  the  electors,  nor  is  it  amenable  in 
any  way  to  the  public. 

The  Political  Labour  Congress  issues  its  orders;  they  are  perforce 
obeyed,  or  the  men  refusing  to  accept  its  decisions  pay  the  penalty  in 
the  shape  of  political  extinction.  The  Congress,  consisting  of  delegates 
from  the  respective  unions,  which  are  affiliated  to  the  Political  Labour 
Federation,  and  which  probably  does  not  represent  more  than  a  third 
of  the  employees  who  have  attained  the  age  of  20  years  and  over,  nomi- 
nated the  Ministry,  choosing  Mr.  Holman's .  colleagues  for  him.  Tt  cen- 
sured Mr.  Griffiths,  the  Minister  for  Public  Works;  it  mapped  out  the 
policy  Ministers  must  follow;  it  even  went  to  the  length  of  ordering 
the  abolition  of  the  pensions  that  are  paid  to  judges  and  the  higher 
salaried  officials  on  their  retirement  from  the  same.  And  it  committed 
the  country  to  a  Socialistic  programme  that  will  still  further  deplete  its 
finances,  which  are,  to  say  the  least,  in  a  very  bad  way. 

EXPENDITURE  ADVANCES  BY  NINE  MILLIONS  IN  THREE  YEARS. 
The  Labour  Government  in  New  South  Wales  succeeded  to  office  in 
1910,  and  to  a  surplus,  bequeathed  it  by  Mr.  Wade,  the  Liberal  Premier, 
of  £989,709. 

By  1913  it  had  turned  that  surplus  into  a  deficit  of  £1.500,000.  In 
other  words,  it  had  gone  to  the  bad  to  the  extent  of  £2,500,000,  although 
the  revenue  rose  from  £13,839,139  in  1910-11  to  £16,057,000  in  1912-13. 
that  is  by  £2,217,861, 

48 


The  total  expenditure  of  the  Wade  Government  during  its  last  year 
of  office  was  £17,853,827. 


FROM   THE   GREYMOUTH   EVENING   STAR. 
(March  21,  1914.) 

Excerpts  from  an  address  by  Prime  Minister,  the  Right  Hon. 
W.  F.  Massey,  at  Greymouth,  March  2ist: 


THE  BIG  STRIKE. 

The  Premier  then  went  on  to  refer  to  the  recent  strike.  The  Gov- 
ernment had  many  difficulties  to  contend  with  when  they  came  into 
power.  There  were  fires  in  the  north,  floods  in  the  south,  and  then  the 
strike  which  was  the  worst  of  all.  They  could  not  please  everyone,  but 
he  believed  that  what  the  Government  had  done  had  pleased  the  ma- 
jority of  the  people  of  this  country. — (Loud  applause.)  Personally  he 
considered  that  if  the  Government  had  not  acted  as  they  had  done  they 
would  not  have  been  worthy  of  the  position  they  occupied.  (Applause.) 
He  knew  from  the  start  that  they  were  up  against  the  most  serious 
crisis  in  the  Dominion's  history.  Trade  was  suspended,  the  ports  were 
closed,  and  the  revenue  was  seriously  affected.  It  was  over  now,  and 
things  had  returned  to  normal.  There  had  been  great  excitement,  and 
many  foolish  things  had  been  said.  He  did  not  blame  the  men  for  the 
strike,  but  he  blamed  their  leaders.  (Applause.)  He  blamed  their 
vanity,  their  stupidity,  and  their  obstinacy.  He  had  tried  his  best  to 
settle  the  strike,  and  there  were  several  conferences,  but  "they  hadn't 
a  hope."  There  were  not  sufficient  police  to  cope  with  the  situation  that 
arose.  Therefore,  they  did  the  only  thing  under  the  circumstances  they 
could  do.  They  appealed  for  "specials,"  and  they  had  a  magnificent 
response.  (Applause.)  They  came  to  help  from  all  parts  in  their 
hundreds,  and  the  number  could  have  been  multiplied  by  five.  He  took 
the  whole  responsibility  for  what  had  been  done.  He  wished  to  express 
his  high  appreciation,  as  head  of  the  Government,  of  the  men  who  came 
to  help  them,  leaving  their  harvests  and  crops.  If  he  could  say  that  of  the 
men  he  could  say  more  of  the  women  who  were  left  on  lonely  farms. 
(Applause.)  The  stand  taken  by  the  settlers  was  a  revelation.  What 
help  did  they  get  from  the  Opposition?  Compare  the  attitude  of  their 
own  Opposition  with  that  of  the  South  African  Opposition  recently. 
He  would  say  no  more,  but  leave  it  at  that.  Now  that  the  strike  was 
over  no  one  could  really  say  what  the  strike  was  about.  Every  worker 
had  a  right  to  sell  his  labour  in  the  highest  market,  but  he  had  no  right 
to  interfere  with  or  prevent  another  man  getting  work.  Although  no 
one  could  tell  the  cause  of  the  strike,  the  result  was  that  it  ended  in  a 
revolt  of  the  people  against  the  tyranny  of  a  foreign  organisation  known 
in  America  as  the  I.  W.  W.  organisation,  and  known  here  as  the  Federa- 
tion of  Labour.  The  great  enemies  of  New  Zealand  were  the  agitators 
who  went  about  stirring  up  strife  between  employer  and  employee.  If  we 
wanted  to  see  the  country  prosper  we  would  be  better  without  this  very 
noisy  and  small  section  of  which  he  had  been  speaking. 

A  Voice  :   Deport  them. 

Mr.  Massey  said  that  he  hoped  they  would  not  need  to  do  that, 
but  he  would  not  shrink  from  even  that  if  it  was  necessary.  (Cheers.) 
The  strike  had  had  a  great  effect  on  the  politics  of  this  country,  and 
parties  were  being  readjusted.  On  the  one  side  there  was  now  the 
party  of  progress — the  Reform  Liberals,  and  on  the  other  the  party  that 
would  put  back  the  wheels  of  progress  50  years  if  their  leaders'  speeches 
were  any  criterion.  These  were  the  Red  Fed.  Liberals. 

49 


FROM  THE  MERCURY. 
(Hobart,  Tasmania,  April  9,  1914.) 

THE  PLASTERERS'  STRIKE. 
PROSECUTION  OF  THE  MEN.    TECHNICAL  POINT  RAISED. 

Adelaide,  April  8. 

For  the  past  two  weeks  200  plasterers,  who  are  under  a  wages 
board  award,  have  been  on  strike  for  higher  wages  and  shorter  hours. 
Today  the  secretary  of  the  union  (Sidney  Riches)  and  30  men  were 
summoned  before  the  Industrial  Court  by  Mr.  Justice  Buchanan  (Presi- 
dent), for  their  action. 

On  the  men  being  asked  to  plead,  Sir  Josiah  Symon,  who  appeared 
for  the  employees,  protested  that  the  matter  before  the  court  was  merely 
an  inquiry,  and  not  a  prosecution. 

The  President  reserved  the  point  for  submission  to  the  Supreme 
Court. 

It  is  understood  that, the  matter  will  be  carried  on  by  the  issue  of 
individual  informations  against  some  of  the  men. 


FROM  THE  LIBERAL. 
(Melbourne,  May,  1914.) 

UNION  OR  LAW — WHICH  ? 

The  Political  Union  doctrine  that  the  rules  of  the  Union  are  su- 
perior to  the  laws  of  the  land  was  flagrantly  and  openly  advocated  by 
Mr.  Hampson,  the  Victorian  Secretary  of  the  Amalgamated  Society  of 
Engineers,  at  a  meeting  on  the  I5th  April,  of  the  Port  Phillip  Ship- 
wrights' Association.  He  said,  in  responding  to  a  toast,  that  "Unionists 
paid  more  respect  to  their  own  rules  than  to  the  laws  of  the  land." 
Coming  as  it  does  from  the  official  representative  of  a  union  that  used 
to  stand  for  sane  trades  unionism,  industrial  efficiency,  and  indifference 
to  political  unionism,  is  symptomatic  as  demonstrating  the  vicious  trend 
of  thought  in  modern  militant  political  trades  unionism.  With  such 
folk  in  a  contest  between  the  law  of  a  democratic  country  and  the  rules 
of  an  aggressive  union,  the  law. is  beaten  every  time.  Hence  their  desire 
to  get  control  of  the  police  and  military.  When  this  is  done  democracy 
has  passed  and  the  tyranny  of  the  Trades  Hall  is  supreme. 


FROM  THE  MELBOURNE  AGE. 

EDITORIAL. 

April  15. — The  gnawing  anxiety  of  the  Labour  Party  to  clear  the 
way  of  all  possible  obstructions  to  its  more  violent  industrial  methods 
was  perhaps  never  so  clearly  demonstrated  as  in  the  proposals  for 
amending  the  Defence  Act  adopted  by  the  recent  Labour  conference. 
The  party  professes  an  unqualified  belief  in  the  principle  of  settling  in- 
dustrial disputes  by  the  peaceful  process  of  law;  its  leaders  are  never 
tired  of  proclaiming  their  allegiance  to  the  arbitration  tribunals.  As  long 
as  these  happen  to  give  them  all  they  want  they  are,  no  doubt,  its  ardent 
champions;  but  the  determination  to  have  recourse  to  "direct  action" — 
should  such  a  course  at  any  moment  appear  expedient — is  never  absent 
from  their  minds.  It  was  for  the  purpose  of  making  direct  action  on  a 
large  scale  as  simple  and  as  riskless  as  possible  to  the  persons  engaging 
in  it  that  the  conference  appointed  a  committee  to  suggest  amendments 
to  the  Defence  Act.  That  this  committee  (of  which  Senator  Barker  and 
Dr.  Maloney,  M.  H.  R.,  were  members)  thoroughly  understood  the  nature 
and  intent  of  its  commission  every  clause  of  its  report  shows. 

50 


What  alterations  to  the  military  system  of  the  Commonwealth 
would  best  suit  the  purpose  of  political  unionism,  give  it  the  freest  hand 
and  widest  scope,  and  render  it  least  liable  to  being  brought  to  book  for 
any  of  its  actions?  The  members  of  the  committee  must  have  asked  each 
other  some  such  questions  as  that  as  they  sat  down  to  deliberate;  and 
the  answer  they  supplied  certainly  does  credit  to  their  ingenuity.  In  the 
first  place,  they  said,  make  impossible  the  "Continental  practice"  of  men 
on  strike  being  "called  to  the  colours"  under  penalty  of  military  punish- 
ment. This  can  as  yet  scarcely  be  called  a  "Continental  practice,"  for  it 
has  been  tried  only  once;  but  the  success  with  which  by  its  means 
M.  Briand  checkmated  the  syndicalists  in  their  deep-laid  plot  to  stop 
traffic  on  the  French  railways  and  "hold  up"  the  Government  and  nation 
naturally  horrified  our  law  and  arbitration  champions  in  Australia,  and 
inspired  them  with  the  ambition  to  make  such  a  device  for  protecting  the 
community  against  violence  and  outrage  impossible  here.  Dr.  Maloney 
and  his  friends  next  proceeded  to  declare  that  in  no  circumstances  should 
any  members  of  the  defence  force  be  required  to  "interfere  with  workers 
engaged  in  an  industrial  dispute."  Under  the  law  as  it  stands  a  State 
Government  has  the  right  to  ask  the  Commonwealth  Government  for 
military  assistance  should  the  resources  of  the  State  be  unequal  to  the 
task  of  preserving  order. 

It  is  the  duty  of  the  Federal  power  to  render  assistance  to  a  State 
Government  when  help  is  demanded,  but,  as  everyone  knows,  the  Fisher 
Ministry  refused  the  request  of  the  Queensland  Government,  even  when 
Brisbane  seemed  on  the  point  of  falling  under  the  lawless  sway  of  a  mob 
of  unionists  during  a  general  strike.  The  committee  of  the  Victorian 
Labour  conference,  fearing  that  some  Federal  Ministry  might  prove  more 
faithful  to  its  duty  than  the  Fisher  Cabinet  proved,  wishes  to  provide  in 
advance  against  any  such  contingency.  Nor  is  this  the  full  extent  of  the 
lesson  conveyed  to  it  by  the  Brisbane  experience.  It  remembers  thai  the 
Denham  Ministry,  left  in  the  lurch  by  the  authority  controlling  the  mili- 
tary forces,  enlisted  the  services  of  some  of  the  volunteers  who  thronged 
in  such  inspiring  numbers  to  help  the  cause  of  law  and  order  against  the 
hosts  of  anarchy;  and  it  has  accordingly  suggested  a  means  of  preventing 
the  repetition  of  such  a  spectacle.  One  of  its  recommendations  is,  "That 
no  State  Government  be  allowed  to  raise,  arm,  or  use  any  force  against 
the  workers  in  the  time  of  an  industrial  dispute."  No  amendment  of 
the  Defence  Act  would,  of  course,  suffice  to  deprive  the  States  of  this 
right;  but  the  fact  that  the  committee  suggested,  and  the  conference 
adopted  a  proposal  of  the  kind  stated  shows  what  an  overmastering 
desire  these  people  have  to  place  the  community  absolutely  at  the  mercy 
of  organised  labour.  The  "unionising"  of  the  police  would  just  about 
complete  the  process. 

Having  thus  suggested  means  for  rendering  the  community  power- 
less, it  might  have  been  supposed  that  the  committee  and  the  conference 
would  rest  content  with  their  labours.  But  in  the  true  spirit  of  their 
kind  they  set  themselves  to  devise  a  plan  for  making  positive  use  of  the 
defence  system  to  help  them  and  their  cause  against  the  public.  For 
what  is  really  the  most  sinister  of  all  their  recommendations  is  the  one 
declaring  that  "every  member  of  the  citizen  forces  should  be  made  cus- 
todian of  his  small  arms  and  equipment."  The  position  they  want  to 
bring  about  is  one  in  which  the  use  of  the  forces  for  the  preservation  of 
law  and  order  shall  be  absolutely  prohibited,  while  each  individual 
member  of  the  forces  shall  have  it  in  his  power  to  render  armed  assist- 
ance, should  he  think  fit,  to  the  people  assailing  that  cause.  In  other 
words,  the  Government  is  not  to  be  permitted  to  call  out  the  military,  but 
the  Trades  Hall  is!  Men  less  unsophisticated  than  Senator  Barker, 
Dr.  Maloney,  and  their  friends  would,  however  anarchical  their  tempera- 
ment, hesitate  to  express  their  purpose  quite  so  candidly,  but  the  fact 
that  these  individuals  are  too  naive  to  give  their  meaning  a  semblance 
of  decency  by  cloaking  it  in  diplomatic  language  does  not  make  these 

51 


recommendations  any  less  significant.  Men  like  them  are  the  pace- 
makers of  the  Labour  movement.  They  catch  the  ear  of  the  most  ex- 
treme of  the  groundlings,  and  these,  in  the  long  run,  dominate  the  party. 
The  conference,  it  should  be  remembered,  adopted  en  bloc  everything  the 
committee  thought  proper  to  suggest. 

The  Brisbane  wharf  labourers  have  shown  the  boycott  to  be  capable 
of  a  development  which  it  had  not  previously  reached  even  in  Broken 
Hill,  where  the  Barrier  Labour  Federation  was  generally  credited  with 
having  exhausted  its  possibilities  as  an  instrument  of  terrorism.  They 
refused  to  handle  cargo  under  the  supervision  of  an  officer  of  one  of  the 
shipping  companies  who  had  given  evidence  distasteful  to  them  in  the 
Arbitration  Court,  and  the  steamer  Ready  had  in  consequence  to  be  laid 
up.  Trade  unionism  regards  victimisation — by  the  other  side — as  the 
most  heinous  of  industrial  offences,  and  its  definition  of  the  word  in  such 
circumstances  is  comprehensive  in  the  extreme.  No  matter  how  offensive 
or  destructive  a  unionist  has  been  in  a  discussion  or  a  strike,  his  asso- 
ciates make  it  a  condition  of  settlement  admitting  of  no  qualification  that 
his  position  and  status  in  the  employer's  service  must  remain  absolutely 
unimpaired.  "No  victimisation"  is,  in  short,  the  loudest  and  most  fre- 
quently heard  of  those  insenate  cries  which  unionists  use  without  know- 
ing precisely  what  the  language  they  employ  really  means.  It  means  to 
them  a  purely  one-sided  thing.  Their  notion  of  liberty  is  liberty  to 
oppress  all  outside  their  ranks;  their  idea  of  equal  opportunity  is  as 
Mr.  W.  H.  Irvine  has  pithily  remarked,  "equal  opportunity  to  all  and 
preference  to  unionists";  the  word  victimisation  they  regard  as  being 
without  -meaning  except  when  they  are  (however  deservedly)  the  suffer- 
ers by  the  process.  They  do  not,  for  example,  consider  it  victimisation 
at  all  when  they  exert  their  immense  strength  to  deprive  non-unionists 
of  the  means  of  supporting  themselves  and  their  families.  The  term  they 
use  to  describe  this  is — "justice." 

Never  before  in  all  the  vagaries  of  its  wayward  spirit  has  trade 
unionism  ventured  to  boycott  an  individual  for  having  given  evidence — 
evidence  on  oath  and  presumably  truthful — against  a  claim  made  by  a 
union  in  an  Arbitration  Court.  The  person  objected  to  in  this  case  is 
an  officer  in  the  service  of  one  of  the  shipping  companies,  and  in  express- 
ing his  views  in  the  witness-box  apparently  he  did  not  hesitate  to  say 
exactly  what  he  thought.  His  evidence  must  have  either  damaged  the 
cause  or  wounded  the  vanity  of  the  claimants,  and  the-  lesson  they  wish 
to  convey  by  the  present  boycott  is  that  men  who  do  that  sort  of  thing, 
where  organised  labour  is  concerned,  do  so  at  their  peril.  It  is  an 
instance,  if  there  ever  was  one,  of  the  fountain  of  justice  being  sullied  at 
its  source,  and  unless  the  Court  concerned  promptly  vindicates  its  author- 
ity by  punishing  the  outrage  on  its  dignity  in  some  unmistakable  manner 
will  simply  be  conniving  at  a  monstrous  injustice.  If  an  employer  ven- 
tured so  much  as  to  betray  a  wish  to  deal  with  a  unionist  in  this  way 
the  country  would  ring  with  denunciations  of  the  infamy,  and  the  of- 
fender would  be  read  a  lecture  from  the  Bench  which  he  would  not 
soon  forget. 

RAILWAY  MEN  STRIKE. 
ISO  MEN  DOWN  TOOLS. 

Wagga,  Wednesday. 

April  16. — The  trouble  regarding  the  handling  of  "black"  chaff 
assumed  a  grave  aspect  this  morning,  when  the  locomotive  staff  employed 
on  the  new  railway  from  Wagga  to  Tumbarumba  refused  to  handle  chaff 
from  A.  Brunskill's  Allonby  Farm.  They  were  in  consequence  sus- 
pended by  the  resident  engineer,  Mr.  G.  C.  Bernard.  Immediately  fol- 
lowing upon  Mr.  Bernard's  action  the  whole  of  the  men  employed  over 
the  entire  length  of  the  new  railway  "downed"  tools  and  went  on  strike. 

52 


FARMERS  AND  THE  A.  W.  U. 

"BLACK  CHAFF/'    CARRIERS  ORDER  MEN  TO  HANDLE. 

THREAT  TO  EMPLOY  NON-UNIONISTS. 

Sydney,  Wednesday. 

April  16. — It  was  stated  at  a  meeting  this  morning  of  the  Master 
Carriers'  Association  that  it  had  been  decided  to  inform  employees  that 
they  must  handle  goods  whether  these  have  been  declared  "black"  or  not. 
Association  officials  declined  to  make  any  statement  in  regard  to  the 
affairs  of  that  body.  It  is  said  that  for  some  weeks  employers  have  been 
warning  their  men  that  if  they  did  not  handle  "black"  chaff  non-union 
labor  would  be  engaged. 

WORKS   REMAIN  CLOSED. 

EMPLOYERS  MEET  TO-DAY. 

April  16. — There  was  no  fresh  development  yesterday  in  regard  to 
the  trouble  in  the  stone  cutting  industry,  and  all  the  works  connected 
with  the  Master  Masons'  Association,  with  the  exception  of  the  Foot- 
scray  and  Malmsbury  Company,  remain  closed. 

STRIKERS  AND  THE  LAW. 
MINISTER  AS  MEDIATOR. 

Perth,  Thursday. 

April  .18. — A  deputation  of  employers  waited  upon  the  Hon.  Minis- 
ter (Mr.  Dodd)  today,  and  brought  under  his  notice  matters  arising  out 
of  the  recent  refusal  by  the  carpenters  at  Millars'  timber-yards  to  work 
with  non-unionists,  thereby  in  the  deputation's  opinion  breaking  the  law 
prohibiting  strikes. 

A  DESERTED  TOWN. 

DISASTROUS    STRIKE.      GRAVE    POSITION    AT   JUMBUNNA. 

Jumbunna,  Monday. 

April  21. — The  strike  at  Jumbunna  coal  mine  has  extended  over 
nine  weeks.  Practically  no  work  has  been  done  since  ist  January,  only 
26  shifts  having  been  worked.  Deputations  representing  the  men  have 
repeatedly  waited  on  the  manager  and  made  certain  proposals  to  him  in 
regard  to  the  trouble  over  the  hewing  rate.  The  miners  have  asked  for 
a  price  which  will  enable  them  to  secure  a  living  wage,  but  so  far  no 
settlement  has  been  arrived  at,  and  matters  are  now  at  a  deadlock. 
The  manager  refused  to  give  the  price  asked,  and  the  miners  refuse  to 
accept  any  reduction.  The  result  is  that  empty  houses  are  to  be  found 
in  every  part  of  the  town,  as  the  miners  are  leaving  as  soon  as  they  secure 
work  elsewhere.  Miners  who  have  been  here  for  fifteen  years  have  been 
compelled  to  leave.  The  town  is  in  a  deplorable  condition.  Business  is 
paralysed,  and  unless  the  strike  is  soon  settled  business  people  will  have 
to  close  their  shops. 

MINERS  SUGGEST  A  STRIKE. 

Kalgoorlie,  Sunday. 

April  27. — A  meeting  of  the  Miners'  Union  was  held  in  Boulder 
town  hall  this  afternoon  for  the  purpose  of  further  discussing  the  ques- 
tion of  not  working  with  non-unionists  after  ist  May. 

UNIONISM  IN  WESTERN  AUSTRALIA. 
THE  TIMBER  WORKERS'  STRIKE. 

Perth,  Sunday. 

April  27. — The  Employers'  Federation  has  rejected  the  proposal  of 
the  Hon.  Minister,  Mr.  Dodd,  for  the  holding  of  a  conference  with  the 
Carpenters'  Union  over  the  compulsory  unionism  strike  at  Millars'  timber 
works,  because  the  union  declared  a  boycott  of  Millars'  material  while 

53 


the  conference  negotiations  were  proceeding.  At  a  special  meeting  oi 
metropolitan  timber  yard  employees  last  night  it  was  resolved  to  continue 
work  till  further  advised  by  the  Labor  Federation. 

In  addition  to  56  men  who  struck  at  Millars'  against  working  with 
non-unionists,  about  30  carpenters  and  a  number  of  painters  have  losl 
their  jobs  owing  to  the  shortage  caused  by  the  strike. 

WORK  AND  WAGES. 
COMPULSORY  UNIONISM.    POSITION  IN  WESTERN  AUSTRALIA. 

Perth,  Monday. 

April  28. — The  Labor  Federation  has  issued  a  statement  in  con- 
nection with  the  compulsory  unionism  strike,  claiming  that  the  Employ- 
ers' Federation,  by  refusing  a  conference,  is  forcing  on  a  lockout,  and 
is  victimising  unionists  by  reducing  hands  in  the  carpentering  trade. 

It  transpires  that  the  fines  imposed  last  month  on  Geraldton  lumpers 
for  striking  have  not  been  paid. 

The  Kalgoorlie  miners,  who  resolved  not  to  work  with  non-unionists 
after  ist  May,  are  apparently  weakening  as  the  time  draws  near  for 
enforcing  or  retracting  the  resolution.  A  conference  of  all  mining  unions 
has  been  called  to  reconsider  the  position. 

ONE  MAN  ONE  JOB. 

"HANDY"  MAN  IN  TROUBLE.    ACTION  BY  MINERS'  ASSOCIATION. 
FIGHT  AT  A  MEETING. 

Ballarat,  Sunday. 

May  4. — Complaint  has  been  made  publicly  by  members  of  the 
Ballarat  branch  of  the  Federated  Miners'  Association  of  Australia  at 
the  action  of  Mr.  J.  D.  Dale,  a  member  of  the  committee  of  the  branch, 
in  working  as  a  carpenter,  and  also  in  other  capacities  on  wages  in  his 
spare  time. 

THE  PAINTERS'  CONFERENCE. 

A  DEFENCE  FUND. 

May  9. — The  Inter-State  conference  of  master  painters  and  decora- 
tors concluded  yesterday. 

Mr.  J.  F.  Maxwell   (Brisbane)   moved — 

"That  it  be  a  recommendation  to  the  various  associations  throughout 
the  States  to  consider  the  advisability  of  establishing  a  sinking  fund  for 
the  purpose  of  protecting  employers'  interests  before  industrial  courts 
and  wages  boards." 

As  he  understood,  the  employers  in  the  trade  were  on  the  edge  of  a 
precipice,  and  unless  something  of  the  sort  he  proposed  was  done,  their 
interests  were  apt  to  be  annihilated. 

FROM  THE  MELBOURNE  ARGUS. 

April  14. — In  spite  of  the  protest  of  the  Boilermakers'  Union 
against  the  announcement  that  it  is  the  intention  of  the  Minister  for 
Immigration  (Mr.  Hagelthorn)  to  allow  Messrs.  Thompson  and  Co,  of 
Castlemaine,  to  secure  artisans  from  England  for  their  works,  Mr.  Hagel- 
thorn is  adhering  to  his  original  decision.  He  states  that  it  really  amounts 
to  an  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  union  to  prevent  British  boilermakers 
from  working  for  a  firm  which,  apparently,  offended  it  some  months  ago. 
Messrs.  Thompson  and  Co.  have  installed  plant  costing  £50,000,  and 
Mr.  Hagelthorn  is  not  prepared  to  allow  an  important  industry  in  the 
country  to  be  crippled  as  a  result  of  the  efforts  of  the  union  to  obtain 
complete  control  of  the  labour.  He  in  no  way  questions  the  competency 
of  the  Victorian  workmen  who  are  members  of  the  union,  but  he  points 
out  that  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  sufficient  labour  should  be  made 
available  to  enable  the  industry  to  be  carried  on. 

54 


Melbourne,  Saturday. 

April  18. — The  Prime  Minister's  reply  to  Mr.  Fisher's  attack  upon 
the  Government  has  set  rolling  a  ball  of  contention  that  will  probably 
travel  far  before  it  stops.  The  Senate,  by  adjourning  for  three  weeks, 
has  indicated  the  extent  of  public  time  the  Labor  caucus  thinks  the 
debate  will  consume;  yet  Mr.  Hughes  yesterday  informed  the  House 
there  never  was  a  period  in  Australian  history  when  there  was  a  greater 
and  more  urgent  call  for  serious  legislative  effort.  Mr.  Cook's  speech, 
judged  from  his  party's  standpoint,  was  both  impressive  and  effective. 
Mr.  Fisher  had  charged  him  and  his  Ministerial  colleagues  with  having 
wilfully  and  deliberately  slandered  the  people  of  Australia  by  making 
allegations  of  illicit  voting  after  last  general  election.  Mr.  'Cook  re- 
torted that  Ministerialists  could,  at  most,  be  accused  only  of  slandering 
a  few  people,  but  that  Mr.  Fisher  for  his  part  had  slandered  a  big 
majority  of  the  workers  by  stigmatising  non-unionists  as  "mostly  the 
sneaks  of  society."  There  are  433,000  unionists  in  the  Commonwealth 
and  724,000  non-unionists,  said  Mr.  Cook.  "Who,  then,  is  the  worst 
slanderer  of  the  people?" 

"BLACK"  CHAFF  TROUBLE. 
SCARCITY  OF  FODDER.    A  BAFFLED  DEPUTATION. 

Sydney,  Monday. 

April  21. — In  connection  with  the  "black  chaff"  trouble,  the  position 
at  the  railway  goods  yards  at  Redfern  today  was  very  similar  to  that  of 
Friday  and  Saturday.  The  master  carriers  made  no  attempt  to  effect 
deliveries,  and  unionist  carters  did  not  put  in  an  appearance.  The  whole 
place  wore  a  deserted  aspect.  Members  of  the  Trolly,  Draymen,  and 
Carters'  Union  discussed  the  position  in  an  informal  way  with  their 
secretary  at  the  Trades  Hall.  It  was  admitted  that  the  outlook  was 
gloomy,  and  that  employers,  by  their  silent  and  concerted  action,  were 
determined  to  enforce  discipline.  Meanwhile,  the  owners  of  live  stock 
are  greatly  worried  over  their  inability  to  get  supplies  of  fodder  for 
their  animals. 

All  day  today  a  deputation  of  farmers  from  the  Wagga  district 
waited  about,  hoping  for  an  interview  with  the  Premier  (Mr.  Holman). 
They  did  not  succeed,  however,  and  had  to  be  satisfied  with  the  answer, 
"The  Premier  hopes  to  be  able  to  see  you  tomorrow."  The  deputation  is 
headed  by  Mr.  J.  Halloran,  president  of  the  Wagga  District  Council  of 
the  Farmers'  and  Settlers'  Association.  It  wants  to  see  Mr.  Holman 
about  the  attitude  of  the  Public  Works  officials  in  preventing  the  car- 
riage of  produce  on  the  completed  section  of  the  Wagga  to  Tumberumba 
railway  line.  Mr.  Halloran  stated  this  evening:  "It  is  an  absurd  mis- 
take for  Sydney  people  to  think  that  we  have  had  any  strike  in  the 
Wagga  district.  Although  the  Australian  Workers'  Union  sent  six  or- 
ganisers to  the  Wagga  district,  and  maintained  a  free  food  camp  of  about 
70  men  for  about  n  weeks,  the  fact  is  that  our  farm  labourers  kept  at 
work,  and  never  expressed  any  dissatisfaction.  I  am  in  a  position  to 
say  that  of  70  men  who  lived  in  the  camp  not  a  single  one  was  a  local 
man.  We  know  that  they  were  specially  brought  across  the  Victorian 
border  in  order  to  make  a  show  of  trouble.  Our  men  have  remained  at 
work,  and  all  our  crops  came  off  in  good  time." 

Free  labourers  are  expected  to  be  available  tomorrow.  A  good 
many  farm  hands  are  reported  to  have  come  down  from  the  Wagga 
district.  The  farmers  are  said  to  be  very  determined  not  to  have  their 
stuff  blocked.  The  future  would  appear  to  be  full  of  complications  and 
difficulties  of  all  kinds.  There  were  over  a  hundred  trucks  of  chaff  on 
the  sidings  today,  including  10  declared  to  be  "black."  Since  Saturday 
27  trucks  have  been  shunted  in.  Demurrage  fees  have  to  be  paid  on  the 
loaded  trucks.  Today's  charges  came  to  over  £100. 

55 


EDITORIAL. 

April  2i.— It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  "black  chaff"  dispute 
in  New  South  Wales  is  raising  issues  which  threaten  the  very  founda- 
tions of  political  and  industrial  organisation.  The  dispute  originated 
from  the  fact  that  the  farmers  of  the  Coolamon  district  of  Riverina 
refused  to  conform  to  the  conditions  laid  down  by  the  rural  workers' 
log,  formulated  by  that  powerful  body  the  Australian  Workers'  Union. 
All  the  farmers  of  Australia  are  now  alive  to  the  nature  of  the  demands 
in  that  log,  and  many  of  them  consider  that  if  it  be  enforced  they  will 
be  constrained  to  desert  their  farms  and  join  the  union,  as  the  surer 
and  more  expeditious  means  of  acquiring  a  competency.  At  any  rate, 
the  farmers  resisted,  and  resisted  successfully,  the  attempt  to  force  the 
log  upon  them.  Chaffcutting  was  continued,  despite  the  strike  of  em- 
ployees, and  it  has  been  demonstrated  to  the  A.  W.  U.  that  the  work 
can  be  carried  on  without  its  co-operation  or  consent. 

Though  the  farmers  may  fight  the  unions,  they  are  helpless  when 
their  own  weapons — the  agencies  of  the  Government  which  they  have 
paid  for  in  taxes — are  turned  against  them.  When,  at  the  instigation  of 
the  unionists,  railway  men  refuse  to  carry  their  chaff,  because  it  has  been 
declared  to  be  "black,"  they  are  ,in  the  position  of  combatants  who,  in 
the  hour  of  success,  are  betrayed  by  treachery.  The  facts  are,  that  a 
considerable  portion  of  a  railway  from  Wagga  to  Humula  has  been  com- 
pleted. Following  the  usual  practice,  goods  traffic  has  been  permitted  on 
the  completed  portion  of  the  line,  and  the  farmers'  chaff  was  forwarded 
to  market  by  that  means.  But  the  men  employed  by  the  Government  in 
the  construction  of  the  line,  finding  that  the  farmers  were  successfully 
resisting  the  extortions  proposed  in  the  rural  workers'  log,  struck  work 
because  "black"  chaff  was  being  conveyed  along  the  completed  portion. 
Mr.  Hutchinson,  engineer  in  chief  of  railway  construction,  speedily  ar- 
rived from  Sydney,  ordered  the  resumption  of  work  by  the  construction 
staff,  and  withdrew  the  concession  made  to  farmers  to  convey  chaff  over 
the  completed  portion,  declaring  that  construction  must  have  preference 
over  the  shifting  of  produce,  and  that  the  Farmers'  Association  must  be 
allowed  to  settle  its  own  quarrels  with  the  Australian  Workers'  Union 
without  involving  the  railways.  When  a  deputation  from  the  Farmers' 
Association  waited  on  Mr.  Hutchinson,  it  was  found  that  he  was  not 
acting  on  his  own  motion,  but  was  carrying  out  the  orders  of  the 
Minister  for  Railways.  Therefore,  it  appears  that  it  was  the  Minister 
for  Railways  who  was  responsible  for  the  statement  that  "the  'railways 
must  not  be  involved"  in  the  quarrel. 

With  that  statement  everyone  should  agree.  The  railways,  which 
are  the  property  of  all,  should  not  be  converted  into  a  weapon  of  com- 
pulsion, and  placed  in  the  hands  of  a  few.  Up  to  the  hour  when  the 
men  on  the  line  struck,  railway  work  was  being  done  in  the  ordinary 
way.  It  was  no  more  "involved  in  the  quarrel"  than  was  the  portion  of 
the  line  from  Wagga  to  Sydney.  It  was  brought  into  the  quarrel  by 
the  railway  men,  and  their  action  has  been  sanctioned  by  the  Minister 
on  the  extraordinary  ground  that  "the  railways  must  not  be  involved  in 
the  quarrel."  In  a  land  where  so  many  commercial  services  are  carried 
on  for  the  people  by  the  State  and  municipal  Governments,  such  a  de- 
cision by  a  Minister  is  a  clear  violation  of  public  duty.  Citizens  cannot 
live  and  carry  on  their  various  avocations  as  free  men  if  the  instrumen- 
talities of  Government,  which  are  the  property  of  all,  are  to  be  placed  as 
a  weapon  of  offence  in  the  hands  of  any  section. 

If  the  workers  may  stop  the  running  of  a  railway  in  order  to  help 
'certain  other  workers  to  coerce  farmers  into  conceding  a  rate  of  wages 
which  the  farmers  regard  as  exorbitant,  where  is  the  new  tyranny  to 
stop?  For  a  similar  trifling  cause  the  post-office  may  suspend  its  func- 
tions lest  "black"  letters  be  carried;  cities  may  be  thrown  into  darkness 
at  night,  deprived  of  food  or  water,  and,  in  fact,  all  the  commercial 

56 


operations  of  Government  may  be  paralysed.  The  great  and  obvious 
principle  involved  is  that  all  persons  employed  in  the  services  which,  in  a 
complex  society,  supply  the  necessities  of  the  citizens  to  whom  they 
belong  are  trustees  for  the  public  safety  in  the  same  sense  that  members 
of  the  defence  force  are  trustees,  and  they  cannot  use  their  positions 
against  the  public  except  by  becoming  disloyalists  and  traitors.  That  a 
few  ignorant  men  should  occasionally  be  led  into  mutinous  revolt  is  not 
to  be  wondered  at;  but _ when  a  craven  Minister  of  the  Crown,  for  politi- 
cal ends,  and  in  the  guise  of  palpable  sophistries,  sanctions  the  treachery 
which  he  ought  to  be  the  first  to  condemn  and  suppress,  what  basis  of 
security  is  left  to  the  people?  Obviously  there  is  no  security  save  that 
which  the  electors  are  prepared  to  sturdily  and  persistently  maintain 
for  themselves. 

STATE  BRICKWORKS. 
MEN  ON  STRIKE. 

Sydney,  Sunday. 

April  30. — The  trouble  with  the  employees  at  the  State  brickworks, 
in  Botany,  has  not  yet  been  settled.  About  50  men  went  on  strike  after 
the  dismissal  of  two  of  their  mates.  They  sent  a  deputation  to  Mr.  Flow- 
ers, M.  L.  C.  (representing  the  Minister  for  Works),  on  Friday  and  were 
told  that  there  would  be  an  inquiry  into  the  alleged  grievances  if  the 
men  returned  to  work.  The  men  decided  to  present  themselves  on 
Saturday  morning,  and  did  so ;  but,  to  their  surprise,  were  told  that  their 
services  would  no  longer  be  required.  Carters  from  the  brickworks  say 
that  they  will  refuse  to  do  further  carting. 

The  manager  of  the  brickworks  (Mr.  Hutton)  says  that  two  men 
who  were  unsatisfactory  were  discharged,  and  without  the  least  warning 
the  whole  lot  kept  away  on  the  following  day.  They  were  therefore 
discharged  on  Saturday.  Mr.  Hutton  added  that  the  men  had  shown 
a  total  lack  of  consideration  to  a  State  industry. 

EDITORIAL. 

May  i. — That  large  class  of  workers  whom  Mr.  Fisher  terms 
"sneaks  of  society"  have  naturally  come  in  for  a  good  deal  of  attention 
during  the  very  dreary  speeches  which  have  echoed  in  the  emptiness  of 
the  House  of  Representatives  this.  week.  The  Prime  Minister,  in  the 
speech  with  which  he  followed  Mr.  Fisher  a  fortnight  since,  pointed  out 
that  there  are  in  Australia  more  than  1,500,000  employees  of  20  years 
of  age  and  over,  and,  as  there  are  only  433,000  unionists,  there  must  be 
over  1,100,000  "sneaks  of  society"  earning  their  living  in  the  Common- 
wealth. When  Mr.  Cook  was  reminded  that  he  had  in  his  day  con- 
demned non-unionists  in  strong  terms,  he  replied  that  he  spoke  of  a 
unionism  very  different  from  the  political  unionism  of  today.  Mr.  Spence, 
the  powerful  head  of  the  Australian  Workers'  Union,  reverted  to  the 
subject  on  Wednesday,  and,  with  his  usual  mildness  of  tone,  displayed 
the  venomous  dislike  which  he  also  entertains  to  the  non-unionist — or 
anti-unionist,  as  he  prefers  to  call  him.  He  said  he  would  not  allow  such 
a  man  within  a  mile  of  any  job  he  controlled.  "He  was  not  only  a  sneak- 
thief  ;  he  would  swindle  his  employer  or  anybody  else." 

Mr.  Spence  sees  the  force  of  the  objection  that  when  men  who  do 
not  believe  in  the  policy  of  the  Labour  Party  are  compelled  to  join 
unions  they  are  obliged  to  pay  levies  for  the  support  of  principles  to 
which  they  are  opposed.  He  said  that  it  was  the  greatest  mistake  in 
the  world  to  suppose  that  every  man  in  a  union  voted  for  Labour. 
The  admission  proves  the  case  against  those  who  would  force  men  into 
unions,  either  by  misapplying  public  funds  to  give  preference  to  union- 
ists, and  exclude  non-unionists  from  employment,  or  by  the  more  forcible 
process  of  making  Australia  a  "hell  upon  earth"  for  them,  or  by  throw- 

57 


ing  them  into  a  river — a  process  which  Mr.  Spence  once  described  to  t 
House  with  every  manifestation  of  humorous  enjoyment.  It  is  by 
curiously  sophistical  process  that  Mr.  Spence  endeavours  to  prove  th 
unionists  who  will  not  vote  Labour  are  not  compelled  to  subscribe  to 
political  faith  to  which  they  are  opposed.  They  are,  of  course,  requir 
to  contribute  to  the  union  funds,  a  large  proportion  of  which  is  devot 
to  political  purposes ;  but  Mr.  Spence  affirms  that,  since  they  gain  mu 
more  in  wages  through  the  efforts  of  the  union  than  they  contribute 
dues  and  levies,  they  actually  do  not  contribute  at  all.  On  the  sar 
ground  Mr.  Spence  might  contend  that  every  adult  person  should 
compelled  to  contribute  to  the  fighting  fund  of  the  Labour  Party.  I 
would  have  no  hesitation  in  affirming  that  the  advantage  to  the  coi 
munity  of  Labour  rule  would  be  so  great  that  each  would  gain  mo 
than  he  contributed,  and  so,  in  fact,  would  not  contribute  at  all. 

Such  reasoning  is,  of  course,  patently  false  and  insincere.  ^ 
Spence  is  too  acute  to  be  himself  deceived  by  it.  The  opprobrious  epitf 
"sneaks  of  society,"  which  Mr.  Fisher  has  coined;  the  policy  of  houndi 
dissentient  non-unionists  from  place  to  place,  of  subjecting  them  to  t 
wrong  and  indignity  of  deprivation  of  their  due  share  of  such  pub 
employment  as  is  available — all  betray  the  inherent  intolerance  of  th« 
men,  who  so  loudly  demand  unfettered  liberty  for  themselves.  Th< 
own  revolt  against  laws  and  conditions,  industrial  and  social,  is,  of  cour 
noble  and  laudable.  But  at  that  stage  liberty  and  toleration  must  er 
To  dissent  from  their  political  doctrines,  to  question  their  authority, 
refuse  to  join  their  unions,  and  decline  to  contribute  money  for  t 
propagation  of  their  policy,  is  ignoble,  mean,  intolerable.  None  but  t 
"sneaks  of  society"  would  do  such  a  thing — actual  "sneak-thieves." 
the  sacred  name  of  freedom  let  such  malcontents  be  decried,  insult< 
and  persecuted.  Labour  members  boast  that  they  have  come  through  t 
fire  of  persecution.  If  so,  it  has  not  been  a  purifying  fire.  All  the  drc 
of  bitterness,  intolerance,  and  bigotry  is  still  in  them." 


SYDNEY  STOREMEN  STRIKE. 
VICTIMISATION  ALLEGED. 

Sydney,  Sunday. 

April  20. — Some  60  storemen  in  the  employ  of  the  Vacuum  Oil  Co: 
pany  and  members  of  the  Storemen  and  Packers'  Union  have  gone 
strike.     They  complain  that  one  of  their  number  has  been  victimised 
the  company's  works   superintendent.     The  strike  affects  the  compan; 
stores  at  Pyrmont  and  Pulpit  Rock. 

With  respect  to  the  strike  reported  in  the  last  above  quot 
news  item,  the  facts,  as  given  to  us  by  an  official  of  the  Vacut 
Oil  Company,  are,  that  a  man  who  was  in  the  employ  of  t 
Company  was  frequently  insolent  to  his  foreman,  worked  wh 
he  felt  like  it,  usually  absent  two  days  a  week  and  did  about 
he  pleased,  after  being  notified  several  times  that  he  would  ha 
to  do  differently  or  his  dismissal  would  be  necessary,  was  final 
discharged  for  insubordination.  Immediately  his  reinstateme 
was  demanded  by  the  union  which,  being  refused,  caused 
general  strike.  Waterside  workers  refused  to  handle  the  Coi 
pany's  product  and  the  industry  was  brought  to  a  standst: 
How  extended  the  strike  became  or  how  it  resulted  we  did  n 
learn. 

58 


At  this  juncture,  and  before  quoting  the  next  editorial  from 
The  Argus,  some  reference  to  State  and  Federal  laws,  which 
at  the  present  time  govern  industrial  conditions  in  the  Common- 
wealth of  Australia,  will  be  in  order.  Each  State  has  its  own 
laws  which,  though  differing  in  some  respects,  embody  the  same 
general  principles. 

In  Queensland  the  Industrial  Peace  Act,  of  1912  repealed 
the  Wages  Boards  Acts  1908  to  1912,  created  an  Industrial 
Court  having  jurisdiction  over  all  industrial  matters  and  indus- 
trial disputes  in  any  calling,  which  may  be  submitted  to  it  by 
not  less  than  20  employers,  or  not  less  than  20  employees  in  any 
such  calling.  The  Act  provides  that  the  judge  of  such  Court 
may  at  his  discretion  order  the  creation  of  Industrial  Boards  of 
from  four  to  twelve  members,  each  consisting  of  an  equal  number 
of  representatives  of  employers  and  employees,  and  prescribes 
the  manner  in  which  such  members  shall  be  elected  or  chosen; 
the  awards  of  such  Boards  being  subject  to  appeal  to  the  Court, 
whose  decision  is  final.  The  Act  also  provides  that  "No  person 
shall  be  refused  employment  or  in  any  way  discriminated  against 
on  account  of  membership  or  non-membership  in  any  industrial 
association"  and  that  "No  person  who  is  an  employer  or  em- 
ployee shall  be  discriminated  against  or  injured  or  interfered 
with  in  any  way  whatsoever  on  account  of  membership  or  non- 
membership  of  any  industrial  association."  The  Act  also  pro- 
vides a  penalty  for  any  act  tending  to  encourage  or  incite  a  lock- 
out or  strike  in  connection  with  certain  specific  public  utilities 
unless  or  until  a  compulsory  conference  has  been  held,  by  call 
of  the  court,  and  such  conference  fails  to  adjust  the  differences 
at  issue,  and  thereafter  unless  and  until  after  14  days'  notice 
in  writing  of  the  intention  to  lock-out  or  strike  has  been  given 
to  the  Registrar  of  the  Court,  and  after  the  Registrar  has  taken 
a  secret  ballot  amongst  the  employers  or  employees,  as  the  case 
requires,  in  the  calling  concerned,  and  such  ballot  has  resulted 
in  favor  of  such  lock-out  or  strike.  The  same  provision  ap- 
plies to  all  the  industries,  except  as  to  the  compulsory  confer- 
ence which  only  applies  to  the  public  utilities. 

What  would  appear  to  a  man  of  ordinary  power  of  mental 
justice  as  a  most  extraordinary  provision  of  twentieth  century 
law,  is  Section  43  of  this  Act,  which  provides  that: 

When  an  award  has  fixed  the  lowest  price  or  rate  which  may  be 
paid  to  any  person  for  wholly  or  partly  preparing  or  manufacturing  any 
particular  article  of  furniture,  and  also  the  period  of  time  within  which 
the  ordinary  working  hours  shall  be  worked,  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for 
more  than  o«e  member  of  a  partnership  to  personally  work  inside  a  fac- 
tory of  the  class  to  which  the  award  related  at  any  time  beyond  such 
periods  of  time,  unless  such  partnership  has  first  obtained  the  written 
permission  of  the  Registrar. 

59 


Another  somewhat  remarkable  feature  of  the  Act  is: 

Where  an  employer  through  depression  in  any  calling  has  reduc 
the  number  of  his  employees  so  as  to  affect  the  prescribed  proportions 
number  of  apprentices  employed  by  him,  the  Court,  after  full  inqui 
may,  if  it  thinks  fit,  permit  him  to  continue  employing  such  apprentic 
for  the  full  term  of  their  indenture. 

These,  however,  are  but  fair  examples  of  industrial  freedo 
deal  out  to  the  people  of  the  "Land  of  No  Strikes."  An  ei 
ployer  is  awarded  by  a  legalized  Board  a  given  number  of  a 
prentices  with  whom  he  enters  into  indenture  contracts,  ft 
fillment  of  which  the  law  should  enforce,  yet  in  case  of  the  fa 
ing  off  in  business  requiring  a  reduction  in  the  working  for 
the  employer  must  repudiate  his  contracts  with  his  apprentic 
and  dismiss  them  from  his  employ  in  proportion  to  the  redt 
tion  in  working  force,  unless,  after  taking  each  case  before 
Court,  the  judge  elects  that  the  apprentice  may  be  retained  ai 
the  employer  be  thus  allowed  to  make  good  his  part  of  the  co 
tract.  It  would  seem  bad  enough  for  a  Government  to  yk 
to  an  organized  part  of  its  constituency  to  limit  the  opportuniti 
for  its  youth  to  acquire  the  knowledge  and  skill  of  an  industr 
trade  rather  than  grow  up  wharf  laborers  or  tramps,  and  whi 
it  would  not  yield  to  its  unorganized  constituency.  But  wh 
a  Government  makes  it  incumbent  upon  a  master  to  plead  befc 
a  Court  at  Law  for  the  privilege  to  make  good  his  legitimc 
obligations  to  his  servant,  that,  to  a  sane  and  just  mind,  is  abhc 
rent  and  repulsive  and  certainly  cannot  inure  to  the  credit  a 
advancement  of  the  State  or  Nation. 

An  apprentice  is  designated  as  an  "improver"  and  is  i 
quired  to  obtain  a  license  before  he  can  engage  as  such,  t 
application  for  such  license  being  of  the  following  form : 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  ACT  OF  IQI2. 
APPLICATION  FOR  LICENSE  TO  WORK  AS  IMPROVER. 

To  the  Industrial  Registrar,  Industrial  Court,  Brisbane: 

I  hereby  make  application  for  a  license  to  work  as  an  improver 
not  less  than  the  wage  fixed  for  improvers  of  years'  experiei 

under  the  Award  of  the  Industrial  Board : 

Applicant's  full  name: 

Applicant's  address : 

Applicant's  age  last  birthday: 

Applicant's  occupation : 

How  long  employed  in  such  occupation,  and  by  whom: 

Name  and  address  of  last  employer: 

Wages  received  in  last  employment : 

Wages  for  which  license  is  required : 

(Signature  of  Applicant)  : 

(Date)  : 

60 


Provided  the  application  is  granted  the  following  form  of 
license  is  issued : 

THE    INDUSTRIAL   PEACE    ACT    OF    IQI2. 

LICENSE  TO  WORK  AS  IMPROVER. 

Office  of  the  Industrial  Registrar, 

Edward  Street,  Brisbane. 

This  is  to  certify  that  I  am  satisfied  that  of  has  not 

had  the  full  experience  prescribed   for  improvers  by  the  Award  of  the 
Industrial    Board    for   the    calling   of  ,    and    I    hereby   grant   this 

license  to  the  said  person  to  work  as  an  improver  at  the  calling  of 
for  a  period  of  ,  from  the  date  hereof  at  a  wage  of  not  less  than 

per    (hour,   day  or  week),   such   rate  having  been   fixed  by  the 
Award  of  the  said  Industrial  Board. 

(Signature) 

Industrial  Registrar. 
Secretary  to  Industrial  Board. 

TAKE  NOTICE. — This  license  must  be  returned  to  Registrar  on  the 
expiration  of  the  period  for  which  it  is  issued;  also,  it  must  be  pro- 
duced on  the  demand  of  an  Inspector  of  Factories  and  Shops  or  of  any 
person  authorized  in  writing  by  the  Court  or  Chairman  of  the  Industrial 
Board. 

Should  this  license  be  lost  or  destroyed,  a  duplicate  may  be  obtained 
from  the  Registrar  on  payment  of  the  prescribed  fee  (25.  6d.). 

(NOTE. — See  further  reference  to  the  subject  of  Apprentice- 
ship.) 

In  cases  where  employment  cannot  be  obtained  at  the  mini- 
mum wage  rate  application  can  be  made  for  a  license  to  work 
for  less  than  said  wage.  The  following  is  the  form  of  such 
application : 

THE    INDUSTRIAL   PEACE   ACT    OF    IQI2. 

APPLICATION  FOR  LICENSE  TO  WORK  FOR  LESS  THAN  THE  MINIMUM  WAGE. 

To  the  Industrial  Registrar,  Industrial  Court,  Brisbane: 

I  hereby  make  application  for  a  license  to  work  for  a  period  not 
exceeding  twelve  months  at  a  less  wage  than  the  minimum  wage  fixed 
for  under  the  Award  of  the  Industrial  Board. 

Applicant's  full  name: 
Applicant's  address : 
Applicant's  age  last  birthday: 
Applicant's  occupation : 
How  long  employed  in  such  occupation : 
Name  of  last  or  present  employer : 
Address  of  employer: 
Wages  received: 

Wages  for  which  license  is  required : 

Reasons   why   license   is    required    (such   as   old    age,    slowness,   or 
infirmity)  : 

(Signature)  : 

(Date)  : 

If  in  the  judgment,  or  otherwise,  of  the  Registrar,  who 
apparently  is  the  sole  dictator  as  to  whether  or  not  the  petitioner's 

61 


prayer  for  the  privilege  of  earning  the  best  living  he  can  for 
himself  and  family,  if  he  has  one,  is  worthy  of  earning  a  living 
at  all,  either  for  himself  or  those  dependent  upon  him,  or  whether 
he  should  be  treated  as  an  undesirable,  classed  with  the  colored 
races  for  whom  there  is  no  place  in  Australia,  and  allowed  to 
exist  or  die  as  the  charitably  disposed  may  elect,  the  petitioner's 
application  is  granted,  then  a  license  of  the  following  form  is 
issued  to  him: 

THE  INDUSTRIAL  PEACE  ACT  OF  IQI2. 
LICENSE  TO  WORK  FOR  LESS  THAN  THE  MINIMUM  WAGE. 

Date,  ,19    . 

This  is  to  certify  that  after  investigation  I  am  satisfied  that 
of  ,   is   unable   through   being    (aged,   slow,  or   infirm)    to   obtain 

employment  at  the  minimum  wage  fixed  by  the  Award  of  the  Industrial 
Board  for  the  calling  of  ,  and  therefore  I  hereby  grant  this 

license  to   (him  or  her)   to  work  as  a  for  a  wage  of  per 

(hour,  day  or  week)  for  a  period  of  months  from  the  date  hereof, 

such  wage  being  less  than  the  minimum  wage  fixed  by  the  Award  of  the 
said  Industrial  Board. 
Entd.  by: 

(Signature) 
Secretary  to  Industrial  Board. 

NOTE. — Under  Schedule  III,  15  (2),  the  number  of  persons  so 
licensed  shall  not,  without  the  consent  of  the  Board  concerned,  or  the 
Court,  exceed  the  proportion  of  one-fifth  of  the  whole  number  of  per- 
sons employed  by  the  same  employer  at  the  minimum  wage  fixed  for 
adults  or  at  piece  work  rates :  Provided,  that  one  person  so  licensed  may 
be  employed  by  any  one  employer.  Any  employer  who,  without  consent, 
employs  any  greater  number  than  the  fixed  proportion,  shall  be  liable  to  a 
penalty  not  exceeding  twenty  pounds. 

At  the  expiration  of  the  license  it  is  returnable  to  the  Regis- 
trar. 

(NOTE. — See  further  reference  to  the  Minimum  Wage.) 

These  are  samples  of  legislation  endorsed  by  Australian 
statesmen,  whose  boast  is  the  democracy  of  the  country  and  the 
individual  liberty  enjoyed  by  its  people  who  have  not  yet  been 
inflicted  with  the  "chain-step,"  but  know  not  how  soon  they  will 
be.  What  shall  be  said  of  such  democracy  and  such  liberty? 
What  shall  the  real  statesmen  say  of  it?  Is  it  any  wonder  that 
the  people  of  Australia,  which  ranks  among  the  most  fertile  and 
richest  countries  of  the  world  and  whose  climate  is  ideal,  long- 
ing and  struggling  for  more  population  as  they  do,  fail  to  realize 
their  desire?  No  country  ever  put  forth  more  strenuous  effort 
or  labored  with  more  zeal  to  increase  its  population  and  build 
up  its  industries;  even  going  so  far  as  to  pay  a  bonus  of  £5 
to  the  parents  of  every  white  child  that  is  born  in  the  Common- 
wealth. In  this  country  of  "peasantry  government,"  the  man 
who  "can't  make  good"  is  the  last  man  to  find  employment  and 

62 


the  first  to  lose  it.  His  bargains  being  made  for  him  by  the 
State  he  surely  is  "between  the  devil  and  the  deep  sea."  But, 
like  the  cow  that  gave  the  full  bucket  of  milk  and  then  put  her 
foot  in  it,  the  beneficent  advantages  which  the  country  itself 
offers  are  more  than  offset  by  the  kindergarten  policy  of  its 
Government.  In  no  other  country  do  vested  interests  feel  less 
secure  or  capital  more  timid.  Its  peasantry  "rules  the  roost" 
and  is  breeding  a  nation  of  idlers.  The  functions  of  Government 
have  been  brushed  aside  and  usurped  until,  in  the  language  of 
one  of  its  most  prominent  business  men,  it  has  become  "a  fool's 
paradise."  But,  as  to  this,  let  the  views  expressed  by  its  own 
citizens  in  the  quoted  portions  of  this  report  be  the  basis  of  any 
opinions  which  may  be  formed  thereon,  while  we  pass  on  to  a 
brief  explanation  of  the  industrial  laws  of  the  other  States  and  of 
the  Commonwealth  itself. 

In  New  South  Wales,  the  industries  are  regulated,  or 
sought  to  be  regulated,  by  an  Industrial  Arbitration  Act,  en- 
acted in  1912,  which,  as  in  the  Queensland  Act,  creates  an  Arbi- 
tration Court,  and  Industrial  Board  and  embodies  substantially 
the  same  principles  and  features,  except  that  the  New  South 
Wales  Act  contains  a  provision  that  preference  to  labor  unionists 
may  be  given. 

Victoria  operates  under  an  Act  known  as  the  Factories  and 
Shops  Act,  enacted  in  1912,  and  which  provides  for  Wages 
Boards  and  a  Court  to  which  the  decisions  of  such  Boards  may 
be  appealed.  Under  this  Act  preference  to  unionists  cannot  be 
given.  Its  general  provisions  are  similar  to  the  Queensland 
Act. 

Tasmania  operates  under  Wages  Board  Acts  adopted  in 
1910  and  1911,  embodying  substantially  all  the  features  of  the 
Queensland  Act,  and  prohibits  the  giving  of  preference  to 
unionists. 

In  South  Australia  there  are  four  Acts  under  which  the  in- 
dustries are  controlled,  the  Factories  Acts  of  1907,  1908  and 
1910,  and  the  Industrial  Arbitration  Act,  passed  in  1912. 
These  various  Acts  provide  for  the  creation  of  Wages  Boards 
and  an  Industrial  Court,  and  embody  substantially  the  features 
of  the  Queensland  Act,  and  do  not  permit  of  the  giving  of 
preference  to  unionists.  The  Act  of  1912  goes  a  step  farther, 
in  the  right  direction,  than  do  those  of  the  other  States  and 
seeks  to  protect  the  citizens  in  their  right  to  the  peaceful  con- 
duct of  their  business  callings  and  occupations.  Section  43  of 
the  Act  provides  as  follows : 

Notwithstanding  anything  contained  in  the  Conspiracy  and  Protec- 
tion of  Property  Act,  1878,  any  person  who: 

63 


(a)  Attends  af  or  near  any  workshop,   factory,  place  of  business, 
or  other  place  where  an  industrial  dispute  is  taking  place,  or  is  threatened 
or  impending,  or  has  taken  place,  or  at  or  near  the  residence  or  place 
of  business  of  any  person  and 

(b)  Induces  or  attempts  to  induce  any  other  person  to  take  part  in 
such  industrial  dispute  or  in  a  lock-out  or  strike,  or  to  do  or  abstain  from 
doing  any  act,  matter  or  thing  whereby  any  party  to  such  industrial  dis- 
pute, or  any  other  person  either  directly  or  indirectly  interested  therein 
or  concerned  therewith,  may  or  might  be  injured  in  his  trade,  business 
or  calling,  shall  be  liable  to  a  penalty  not  exceeding  £20  or  to  imprison- 
ment, with  or  without  hard  labor,  for  a  term  not  exceeding  three  months. 

The  Secretary  of  a  South  Australia  association,  in  a  letter 
dated  May  7,  1910,  said:  "Australia  has  during  the  last  few 
years  been  going  through  a  particularly  trying  period  of  indus- 
trial unrest,  the  chief  cause  of  which  no  doubt  has  been  the  re- 
markable prosperity  of  the  activities."  Again  the  same  gentle- 
man, in  a  letter  dated  August  31,  1910,  said:  "Industrial  condi- 
tions have  not  yet  reached  the  impossible  stage  in  Australia  but 
they  are  going  rapidly  that  way.  The  labor  party  is  a  big  politi- 
cal force  here,  and  at  present  controls  the  Federal  Parliament 
and  that  of  West  Australia.  They  also  controlled  our  own 
State  until  the  elections  in  April  last  when  they  went  out  with 
a  thud." 

In  Western  Australia  the  provisions  of  the  Industrial  Arbi- 
tration Act,  passed  in  1912,  are  similar  to  those  of  the  laws  in 
the  other  States.  The  Act  does  not  permit  of  the  giving  of 
preference  to  unionists.  New  South  Wales  stands  alone  among 
the  States  as  willing  that  its  Wages  Boards  and  Arbitration 
Court  should,  if  they  desire,  say  to  a  citizen  artisan  or  laborer, 
"You  must  be  a  member  of  a  labor  union  if  you  wish  to  earn  a 
living  in  this  State."  And  this  cruel  privilege  is  granted  by  the 
(•ommonwealth  itself. 

In  addition  to  the  various  State  Act,  there  are  the  Common- 
wealth Conciliation  and  Arbitration  Acts  of  1904  and  1911, 
designed  to  operate  to  adjust  and  regulate  industrial  conditions 
of  an  interstate  character  and  over  which  the  State  laws  had 
no  jurisdiction.  It  was  soon  found,  however,  that  there  was 
clashing  between  the  State  and  Federal  awards  in  that  many 
instances  arose  wherein  the  awards  of  both  the  Commonwealth 
and  the  States  were  effective  and  the  awards  varied.  This  con- 
dition has  caused  much  confusion  and  annoyance  and  has  been 
the  subject  of  considerable  agitation  which  the  labor  unions, 
through  their  representatives  in  Parliament,  have  sought  to  turn 
to  their  advantage,  claiming  that,  under  the  Federal  Act,  where 
a  controversy  existed  in  similar  trades  or  callings  in  any  two 
States  at  the  same  time,  whether  the  parties  to  such  disputes 
were  in  any  manner  directly  interested  in  both  disputes  or  not, 

64 


it  came  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  Court.  The  ap- 
parent reason  for  so  maintaining  being  that  the  Federal  Court  is 
headed  by  a  judge  who,  it  is  claimed,  is  distinctly  biased  in  favor 
of  the  laboring  element  and  that  more  favorable  decisions  could 
be  gotten  where  cases  were  taken  before  that  tribunal.  With 
lespect  to  this,  the  gentleman  just  referred  to,  in  his  letter  of 
August  31,  1910,  said: 

The  great  trouble  to  manufacturers  here  at  present  is  the  dual 
control  of  industrial  legislation.  The  States  so  far  have  jurisdiction  on 
all  matters  which  affect  their  own  particular  State.  The  Commonwealth 
has  jurisdiction  where  an  industrial  dispute  extends  beyond  the  borders 
of  one  State.  In  addition  to  this  the  Commonwealth  has  an  Arbitration 
Court-  with  a  Judge  who  was  appointed  by  the  Labor  Party  from 
amongst  their  own  number :  he  consequently  has  a  distinct  bias  in  favor 
of  the  men  and  a  Federal  Arbitration  Court  making  awards  which  also 
fix  wages  and,  possibly  conditions  on  a  different  basis,  and  which,  under 
the  Act,  apply  only  to  the  members  of  unions  and  to  the  employers 
who  are  cited,  who  to  get  the  advantage  of  a  judgment  under  the  Federal 
Arbitration  Court  create  a  technical  dispute  in  more  than  one  State  and 
another  award  is  obtained  in  that  Court.  You  can  imagine  the  confusion 
which  arises  under  these  conditions.  You  have  a  State  Wages  Board  fix- 
ing wages  and  conditions.  I  can  assure  you  that  Australia  has  not"  been 
made  the  "Land  of  No  Strikes,"  or  a  "Labor  Utopia"  by  Act  of  Parlia- 
ment yet. 

This  means  that  practically  all  local  labor  disputes  could  by  a 
simple  "presto-change"  performance,  be  taken  from  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  State  Boards  and  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Judge  of 
the  Federal  Court  of  Conciliation  and  Arbitration,  and  thus  the 
industrial  destiny  of  the  nation  would  be  practically  in  the  hands 
of  one  man.  As  an  example  of  how  this  could  be  done,  let  us  take 
the  case  of  the  great  strike  at  Brisbane,  in  January  1912,  re- 
lating to  which  we  gathered  the  following  information  from  an 
authoritative  source.  The  local  tramway  men  struck  because  the 
company  would  not  rescind  its  rule  that  its  employees,  during 
service  hours  should  wear  no  badge  or  emblem  exposed  upon  their 
clothing,  other  than  that  of  the  tramway  company.  In  open  defi- 
ance of  this  rule  a  number  of  the  men  proceeded  one  morning  to 
take  out  their  cars,  wearing  their  union  buttons.  They  were 
promptly  advised  that  their  service  with  the  company  was  suspend- 
ed until  such  time  as  they  would  comply  with  its  rules  and  at  once 
a  strike  of  the  tramway  men  was  declared.  Whereupon  a  general 
strike  of  all  unions  in  the  city  was  called,  some  forty  or  more 
unions  responding  to  the  call.  A  siege  of  war  at  once  began  and 
anarchy,  in  all  the  name  implies,  reigned  supreme  for  about  a 
week.  The  union  leaders  set  out  to  teach  the  citizens  of  Bris- 
bane, and  incidentally  of  Australasia  and  the  world,  the  lesson 
that  unionism  must  not  be  thwarted  in  anything  it  wished  to  do, 
and  that  no  rules  could  be  enforcible  over  its  own.  Following 
military  tactics,  they  declared  "martial  law"  of  their  own, 

65 


ordered  the  suspension  of  all  business,  smashed  the  windows 
and  otherwise  destroyed  property  of  those  who  refused  to  obey 
the  order.  They  forbade  the  delivery  of  ice,  milk  and  all  other 
food  supplies  by  any  and  all  persons  not  having  a  permit  from 
the  supreme  union  official.  In  fact,  they  took  possession  of 
the  city  in  the  same  spirit  and  as  completely  as  could  have  been 
done  by  an  overpowerful  foreign  enemy.  It  was  the  first  grand 
demonstration  of  the  havoc  ''Syndicalism,"  or  "one  big  Union," 
as  they  prefer  to  call  it,  (,we  call  it  "I.  W.  W.,")  can  play  when 
it  wants  to.  However,  its  reign  of  terror  was  of  comparatively 
short  duration.  While  it  frightened  some  cowardly  public  officials 
away  from  the  scene  of  action,  there  were  others  who  stood  by 
their  guns,  spurred  up  to  their  duty  and  with  courage  to  perform 
it;  among  whom  may  be  mentioned,  Mr.  Barnes,  the  Chief  Sec- 
retary, and  Major  Cahill,  Chief  of  Police  who,  realizing  the 
exigencies  of  the  situation  and  the  limitations  of  his  authority 
to  act  in  the  premises,  gave  the  authorities  the  ultimatum  of 
accepting  his  resignation  or  placing  him  in  absolute  control  with 
no  higher  power  to  interfere.  After  considerable  hesitancy,  and 
a  good  deal  of  reluctance,  is  was  decided  to  place  Major  Cahill 
in  supreme  control  and  orders  were  issued  to  that  effect,  with 
the  result  that  1500  or  2000  citizens  were  sworn  in  as  special 
police  and  hundreds  of  pastoralists,  from  the  surrounding  dis- 
tricts, who  volunteered  their  services,  were  also  sworn  in.  Bat- 
talions were  formed  and  assigned  to  different  sections  of  the  city  ; 
the  country  contingent  being  mounted,  rode  through  the  streets 
beating  the  mob  right  and  left  with  batons,  while  the  city  forces 
scattered  the  insurgents  and  arrested  many  of  them.  With  this 
line  of  action  normal  conditions  were  restored  after  five  days' 
reign  of  anarchy  and  terror,  with  the  breaking  of  many  heads 
and  other  bodily  injuries.  Before  the  assistance  of  city  and 
country  volunteers  was  sought,  however,  the  city  authorities, 
finding  themselves  hopelessly  unable  to  cope  with  the  situation, 
applied  to  the  Prime  Minister  of  the  Commonwealth  (Mr. 
Fisher)  for  Government  aid,  but  the  response  came,  "I  see  no 
reason  why  assistance  should  be  given,"  and  instead  of  ordering 
the  aid  asked  for,  he  is  said  to  have  sent  a  donation  of  £10  to 
the  strike  fund  of  the  riotous  strikers.  When  the  mob  had  been 
thus  subdued  and  the  machinery  of  municipal  government  was 
again  working  smoothly,  the  tram  lines  resumed  after  a  week's 
tie-up,  with  a  full  complement  of  men,  comprising  those  who 
were  forced  into  the  strike  against  their  wills,  and  new  men  in 
place  of  those  who  were  instrumental  in  causing  the  strike  or 
voluntarily  joined  it,  or  refused  to  resume  work  unless  allowed 
to  wear  their  union  badges.  A  new,  and  independent,  union 

66 


was  formed  among  the  tramway  employees  and  registered  under 
the  Queensland  Industrial  Peace  Act  and  the  old  union,  which 
was  affiliated  with  the  "Red  Feds,"  as  the  syndicalists  are  called, 
was  ignored.  But,  nothing  daunted,  they  proceeded  to  appeal 
from  the  local  Board  to  the  Federal  Court  of  Conciliation  and 
Arbitration  on  the  ground  that  pending  the  difficulty  at  Brisbane 
there  was  also  a  dispute  in  the  tramway  system  at  Adelaide, 
South  Australia,  which  also  resulted  in  a  very  serious  and  costly 
strike.  The  Federal  Court,  of  which  Mr.  Justice  Higgins  is 
president,  considered  the  case  and  made  a  most  remarkable  award 
therein.  It  not  only  ruled  that  the  members  of  the  plaintiff 
union  should  wear  their  union  badges  if  they  so  desired,  but 
that,  notwithstanding  the  provision  in  the  Queensland  Act  that 
there  shall  be  no  discrimination  in  employment,  the  company  in 
the  employment  of  men  must  give  preference  to  members  of 
such  union.  Thus  creating  a  complex  situation  and  raising  an 
issue  between  the  State  and  Federal  Governments  that  promises 
serious  consequences  and  which  may  lead  to  the  final  disintegra- 
tion of  the  Commonwealth,  which,  unless  the  people  of  Australia 
awake  to  their  danger,  socialistic  labor  unionism  will  accomplish 
sooner  or  later. 

The  Brisbane  Tramway  Company,  in  order  to  test  the  right 
of  Federal  jurisdiction  in  the  premises,  brought  an  action  in  the 
High  Court,  at  Melbourne,  which,  by  a  majority  of  four  to  two, 
held  that  the  provision  of  the  Constitution,  under  which  the  action 
was  brought,  was  sufficiently  elastic  to  support  the  position  taken 
by  Justice  Higgins.  A  similar  case,  known  as  the  "Builders  La- 
borer's Case,"  involving  the  same  constitutional  question  was 
tried  out  in  the  High  Court,  at  Sydney,  the  following  reference 
to  which  is  quoted  from  the  Adelaide  Advertiser  of  May  16: 

Sydney,  May  15. — Important  constitutional  questions  respecting  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  Commonwealth  Court  of  Conciliation  and  Arbitration 
were  involved  in  two  cases  argued  as  one  before  the  High  Court  of 
Australia  on  April  i6th  and  succeeding  days.  The  court  gave  judgment 
today.  The  essence  of  its  majority  finding  was  that  the  Arbitration 
Court  had  properly  made  an  award  between  the  Builders'  Laborers' 
Federation  and  the  employers.  The  Court  was  divided  in  judgment,  but 
by  a  majority  of  four  to  two,  the  Chief  Justice  (Sir  Samuel  Griffith) 
and  Mr.  Justice  Barton  being  the  dissentients,  refused  the  application  by 
the  Master  Builders'  Association  of  New  South  Wales  for  prohibition 
of  the  award.  The  Court  was  unanimous,  however,  in  making  absolute 
a  rule  nisi  in  restraint  of  that  portion  of  the  award  in  which  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Arbitration  Court  directed  that  compensation  should  be  paid 
on  the  same  basis  as  that  provided  for  in  the  Commonwealth  Workmen's 
Compensation  Act,  a  measure  applying  only  to  employees  of  the  Common- 
wealth Government. 

THE  CHIEF  JUSTICE'S  JUDGMENT. 

The  Chief  Justice  during  an  exhaustive  review  said:  The  case 
raises  for  decision  in  a  concrete  form  the  proper  construction  of  the 

67 


much-debated  provisions  of  Sections  51  (35)  of  the  Constitution,  which 
empowers  the  Commonwealth  Parliament  to  make  laws  with  respect  to 
conciliation  and  arbitration  for  the  prevention  and  settlement  of  indus- 
trial disputes  extending  beyond  the  limits  of  any  one  State.  This  being 
a  new  power  conferred  upon  a  Legislature  of  limited  jurisdiction,  which 
as  a  general  rule  has  no  authority  to  interfere  with  the  domestic  trade 
or  industry  of  a  State,  it  lies  on  the  party  making  its  exercise  to  show 
affirmatively  that  the  case  in  which  the  exercise  is  involved  falls  within 
the  power.  *  *  *  The  matter  is  one  with  which  a  State  is  fully  competent 
to  deal. 

The  Brisbane  and  Adelaide  Companies  appealed  to  the  High 
Court  for  a  prohibition  of  the  award  of  Justice  Higgins  and 
these  cases  were  proceeding  by  argument  at  the  time  of  our  de- 
parture from  Australia.  It  is  fitting  to  mention  here,  that  the 
tramway  company,  the  City  of  Brisbane,  as  well  as  the  whole 
of  Australia,  are  to  be  congratulated  upon  the  fact  that  such  a 
man  as  J.  S.  Badger  was  at  the  head  of  the  tramway  company. 
A  cool  headed,  fair  minded,  determined  man,  whom  no  body  of 
law  breakers  could  frighten  nor  intimidate;  nor  men  swerve 
from  the  path  of  duty.  One  has  only  to  mention  his  name  almost 
anywhere  throughout  Australasia  to  be  convinced  of  the  esteem 
in  which  he  is  held.  It  would  be  well  for  Australia  if  it  could 
boast  of  a  few  more  such  men  as  Mr.  Badger,  even  though  he  is 
an  American.  It  may  seem,  and  indeed  is,  strange  that  after 
such  an  experience  as  the  Brisbane  strike,  the  Queensland  Par- 
liament should  pass  an  Act  embodying  the  provisions  hereinbe- 
fore quoted,  especially  in  view  of  the  political  aftermath  of  the 
Brisbane  and  the  Adelaide  strikes,  when  at  the  next  State  elec- 
tions in  both  Queensland  and  South  Australia  the  public  gave 
expression  to  its  dissatisfaction  with  the  Socialistic  Labor  Party's 
evident  contempt  for  laws,  largely  of  their  own  making,  and  their 
flagrant  disregard  of  the  public's  interest  and  convenience  by 
voting  them  out  of  office.  But  there  is  no  accounting  for  the 
extremes  to  which  some  Australian  legislators  will  go  in  their 
mad  attempts  to  establish  "Industrial  Peace." 

In  a  speech  by  the  Hon.  Wm.  Watt,  "Liberal"  Premier  of 
Victoria,  delivered  in  November,  1913,  referring  to  the  matter 
of  Labor  legislation,  he  said : 

The  Liberal  Party  believes  that  salvation  by  legislation  is  not  pos- 
sible. It  thinks  there  are  many  things  that  legislation  can  do,  but  there 
are  many  things  it  cannot  do,  and  while  we  believe  in  bringing  legislative 
progress  to  you,  we  are  not  offering  the  millennium  which  must  arrive 
on  some  different  road. 

Referring  again  to  the  question  of  Federal  jurisdiction  over 
local  or  State  authority  in  matters  industrial,  aside  from  the 
question  of  Federal  interference  with  State  Rights,  as  limited  by 
the  Federal  Constitution,  it  should  not,  because  it  cannot  equi- 

68 


tably  deal  with  local  industrial  matters  in  fixing  uniform  wages 
and  conditions  throughout  the  whole  Commonwealth.  For  it  is 
a  plain  proposition  that  widely  varying  conditions  must  of  neces- 
sity prevail  in  the  various  States  and  municipalites  and  that, 
therefore,  a  Federal  Court  in  fixing  a  uniform  wage,  and  uniform 
conditions  for  each  industry  throughout  the  entire  country,  must 
be  as  unfair  as  it  is  impracticable  and  unwise  to  attempt  to  do 
so.  Moreover,  in  effect,  it  is  a  long  step  in  the  direction  of 
nationalizing  State  Socialism. 

During  our  stay  in  Melbourne  an  award  to  waterside 
workers — wharf  laborers — pending  before  Judge  Higgins,  ex- 
cited a  great  deal  of  interest.  The  following  excerpts  from  an 
editorial  in  the  Argus  expresses  the  general  sentiment  of  the 
thinking  public  as  we  heard  them  freely  expressed  by  those  with 
whom  we  discussed  the  subject.  The  Argus  says : 

April  17. — The  main  point  about  Mr.  Justice  Higgins's  award  in 
the  waterside  workers'  case  is  that  it  gives  the  men  practically  all  they 
asked  for.  Their  formal  claim  was  for  2s.,  but  it  is  well  known  to  be 
the  practice  in  these  matters  to  pitch  the  demand  a  good  deal  above  the 
amount  acceptable.  One  shilling  and  nine  pence  an  hour  is  to  be  the 
rate  of  pay  for  wharf-lumping  in  future.  Mr.  Justice  Higgins  con- 
fesses that  when  he  looked  at  it  he  was  "startled  to  find  so  high  a  rate 
necessary  for  unskilled  labor" ;  but  so  it  is,  and  the  employers  and  the 
community  will  have  to  bear  it  with  what  grace  they  can.  For  there  can 
be  no  getting  away  from  the  fact  that  an  increase  in  freights  and  fares 
must  follow  the  increase  in  wages. 

Again,  under  date  of  April  20  the  Argus  says : 

As  the  full  significance  of  Mr.  Justice  Higgins's  award  in  the 
waterside  workers'  arbitration  case  comes  home  to  the  general  public  it  is 
bound  to  produce  a  feeling  little  short  of  dismay.  To  begin  with,  there 
is  the  immediate  cost  of  it — the  heavy  additional  burden  which  it  lays 
upon  the  shipping  industry.  The  sudden  jump  in  wage  rates  will,  it  is 
estimated,  increase  the  working  expenses  of  the  industry  throughout  the 
Commonwealth  by  at  least  £400,000  a  year,  which  is  considerably  in 
excess  of  the  net  profits  of  the  steamship  companies.  In  the  first  instance 
the  increase  will  fall  upon  the  shipping  industry,  but  it  will,  as  a  matter 
of  course,  be  passed  on  at  once  to  the  community  in  the  form  of  higher 
freight  and  passenger  charges.  That  is  always  the  result  when  the 
working  expenses  of  a  trade  are  artificially  increased  by  taxation  or 
other  exercise  of  State  authority,  legislative  or  judicial.  It  is  absurd, 
in  the  circumstances,  for  Mr.  Justice  Higgins  to  seek  escape  from  the 
consequences  of  his  action  by  pretending  that  if  such  a  rise  in  the  scale 
of  shipping  charges  occurs  now  it  may  have  no  connection  with  his 
award.  The  additional  £400,000  has  to  be  found,  and  the  people  of 
Australia  will  have  to  pay  it. 

Laws  and  Wages. 

Some  twenty-two  years  ago,  during  'the  great  maritime 
strike,  the  idea  of  solving  the  then  vexatious  labor  problem  by 
legislation,  it  is  said,  was  first  conceived  in  New  Zealand  and  it 

69 


was  there  that  the  suggestion  first  took  root,  which  was  imme- 
diately transplanted  in  Australia.  The  country  was  prosperous 
and  the  people  were  bent  on  taking  advantage  of  their  oppor- 
tunities to  make  hay  while  the  sun  shone.  This  seemed  to  be 
the  way  out  of  the  drawback  to  continued  prosperity  and  the 
avenue  through  which  industrial  peace  could  be  enjoyed.  Em- 
ployers and  workers  alike  caught  the  fever,  which  became  epi- 
demic, and  the  struggle  against  the  economic  law  of  supply  and 
demand  began  in  earnest.  Employers  tell  us  that  they  welcomed 
the  advent  of  any  system  or  policy  which  promised  relief  from 
the  troublesome  industrial  conditions  with  which  they  were  con- 
stantly confronted.  They  also  tell  us  they  would  still  prefer  the 
many  arbitrary  and  unjust  annoyances  of  labor  legislation,  as 
it  has  developed,  to  the  perplexities  of  the  old  regime  if  the 
scheme  worked  out  as  it  should,  but  that  it  does  not.  It  worked 
fairly  well  as  long  as  the  awards  made  under  the  system  of 
Wages  Boards  and  Arbitration  were  favorable  to  the  workers. 
But  when  a  halt  necessarily  had  to  be  called  to  the  constant  ad- 
vancement of  wages,  reduction  of  hours  and  other  handicaps  to 
economic  progress  such  as  restrictions  of  output,  the  transfer, 
practically,  of  control  of  the  employers'  business  from  its  owners 
to  their  employees,  and  the  wanton  attacks  on  discipline  neces- 
sary to  the  management  of  employees  in  any  line  of  business, 
back  came  the  strike  with  all  its  evil  accompaniments,  until  now 
the  industrial  conditions  are  worse  than  ever  and  the  whole  coun- 
try is  agog  with  industrial  turmoil  and  strife. 

In  discussing  the  subject  of  Wages  Boards  and  their  effect 
on  the  industries  with  a  Sydney  manufacturer  of  household 
goods  who  employs  from  600  to  800  workers,  he  told  us  that, 
"barring  the  fact  that  Wages  Boards  are  not  a  success,"  most 
manufacturers  and  some  other  employers  would  prefer  to  be 
relieved  of  the  wage  agitation  and  have  a  uniform  wage  for 
each  industry  fixed  by  a  legalized  board  and  to  run  for  a  definite 
period,  and  that  they  did  not  care  at  what  rate  wages  were  fixed 
because  they  always  took  care  that  advances  were  passed  on  to 
the  public  "with  something  added  for  good  luck,"  but  that  it  was 
hard  on  the  unorganized  portion  of  the  public  who  could  not 
retaliate  and  must  carry  the  burden;  also,  that  the  system 
worked  hardship  to  superior  men  in  the  industries  whose 
opportunities  for  reward  for  increased  productivity  and  skill 
were  abridged  by  the  system  which  practical  operation  had  demon- 
trated  to  be  a  medium  through  which  a  horizontal  standard  is 
developed.  The  following  from  the  Sydney  Telegraph,  of  May 
20th,  entitled  "Our  Industrial  'Heavy  Fee,' "  will  be  of  interest 
at  this  point,  as  it  refers  to  the  Bacon-Bartlet  Bill: 

70 


One  of  the  speakers  at  Monday  night's  gathering  of  builders  and 
other  employers  commented  on  the  "very  heavy  fee"  the  people  of  New 
South  Wales  are  paying  "for  the  maintenance  of  industrial  peace." 
The  price,  however,  would  not  be  considered  too  high  if  it  bought  what 
is  paid  for.  What  makes  it  unbearable  is  that  in  return  for  it  the  people  do 
not  get  industrial  peace,  but  experience  about  the  same  amount  and  inten- 
sity of  war  as  in  times  when  they  did  not  have  to  keep  up  the  costly 
pretence  of  ensuring  peace.  That  is  the  position  in  New  Zealand  as  it  is 
in  New  South  Wales.  As  the  president  of  the  Employers'  Federation 
said,  the  Commonwealth  Statistician  has  recorded  the  Australian  indus- 
trial disputes  of  a  year  as  numbering  208,  and  involving  over  50,000 
workers,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that  the  majority  of  these  occurred  in  New 
South  Wales,  where  the  law  and  the  form  of  tribunal  have  been  changed 
more  frequently  than  in  any  other  State  in  deference  to  unionist  dis- 
satisfaction and  the  hope  of  finding  an  acceptable  method.  Indeed,  pro- 
portionately to  our  population  we  seem  to  have  got  atread  of  other  coun- 
tries in  industrial  strife.  When  the  last  mail  left  the  United  States  there 
was  before  Congress  a  bill  promoted  by  the  American  Federation  of 
Labor  and  legalising  "any"  combination  or  agreement  with  a  view  to  lessen- 
ing the  hours  of  labor  or  increasing  wages  or  bettering  working  conditions. 
This  measure  protected  workers  from  injunction  on  account  of  the  con- 
sequences of  the  acts  of  any  such  combination  unless  they  occasioned 
irreparable  injury  to  property  or  a  property  right.  Then  it  went  on  to 
define  the  relations  of  employer  and  employee,  and  the  carrying  on  of 
business  in  such  relation  to  be  matters  of  "personal  right."  So  that 
preventing  workers  from  taking  strikers'  places  and  thus  compelling  an 
employer  to  close  his  business  down  would  not  be  an  offence,  neither 
would  any  kind  of  boycotting,  because  in  all  such  things  only  "personal 
rights,"  not  "property  rights/'  would  be  involved.  The  proposed  legisla- 
tion has  been  alarmedly  protested  against,  and  was  indignantly  de- 
nounced by  President  Roosevelt  five  or  six  years  ago  as  meaning  "the 
enthronement  of  class  privilege  in  its  crudest  and  most  brutal  form." 
But  would  it  legalise  anything  appreciably  worse  than  we  have  endured 
and  are  always  more  or  less  liable  to  in  this  State? 

The  law  purporting  to  lay  a  safe  foundation  for  industrial  peace 
here  has  in  large  degree  had  the  opposite  effect  through  the  great  induce- 
ment and  facilities  for  organization  it  has  provided.  By  this  method  the 
numbers  of  unionists  have  been  increased  and  the  mass  stiffened  by  that 
incentive  to  combativeness  which  is  naturally  given  by  the  litigious  proce- 
dure of  the  Arbitration  Act.  The  potency  of  combination  has  also  been 
thus  drilled  into  workers.  In  the  American  bill  which  has  been  men- 
tioned it  is  not  only  employees  that  are  proposed  to  be  allowed  to  com- 
bine. As  well  the  law's  protection  is  to  be  given  to  farmers  who  make 
"any"  agreement  or  combination  for  the  purpose  of  enhancing  the  prices 
of  agricultural  or  horticultural  products.  The  reach  of  the  protecting 
law  that  covers  "any"  arrangement  will  be  obvious ;  and  not  in  that 
respect  only,  but  evidently  with  a  view  to  showing  farmers  a  way  to 
harness  combination  to  their  own  purposes  the  proposal  reveals  a  class 
astuteness  which  ignores  the  public  interest.  Employer  and  employed 
can  combine  in  any  way  they  please,  that  is  what  it  amounts  to,  and 
of  course  that  is  what  the  law  encouraging  combination  suggests,  along 
with  its  concomitant  disregard  of  the  public  which  must  find  the  money 
combined  effort  extracts  from  it.  What  ought  to  gratify  us  in  this 
country  is  that  so  far  employers  and  employed  have  not  co-operated  in 
methods  which  grind  the  public  between  the  upper  and  nether  mill-stones, 
as  it  has  been  put  in  America.  No  doubt  employers  sometimes  find  it 
difficult  to  pass  on  the  whole  cost  of  concessions  that  are  demanded  by 
workers,  but  at  the  same  time  it  is  a  conclusion  backed  by  evidence  that  in 
resisting  extravagant  claims  they  are  moved  by  public-spiritedness  as 
well  as  by  appreciation  of  the  economic  impossibility  of  much  that  is 

71 


demanded  of  them.  And  it  is  some  solace  to  know  that  in  this  respect 
there  are  limits  of  practicability  which  cannot  be  passed  though  ap- 
parently they  will  be  reached. 

However,  labor  legislation  is  on  the  statute  books,  the  ma- 
chinery for  its  administration  has  been  firmly  installed  and  the 
system  so  thoroughly  established  that  it  has  become  a  fixed 
political  asset  that  cannot  easily  be  changed  or  removed.  The 
situation  is  indeed  a  serious  one  and  many  thinking  men  pre- 
dict even  more  serious  consequences  before  there  will  be  any 
improvement,  some  going  so  far  as  to  declare  there  will  be  a 
revolution  before  many  years.  But  we  do  not  share  that  opinion, 
as  we  believe  the  Australian  people,  as  a  whole,  are  possessed 
of  sufficient  intelligence  and  common  sense  to  eventually  restore 
normal  conditions  through  rational  and  peaceful  methods.  We 
cannot  but  observe,  however,  that  the  country  is  in  the  hands  of 
its  enemies  and  that  political  demagogues  are  falling  into  line 
with  the  advocates  of  the  "New  Unionism,"  a  deceptive  term  for 
"Syndicalism,"  better  known  in  the  United  States  as  "I.  W.  W.- 
ism,"  the  plain  purpose  of  which  is  to  throw  the  whole  country 
into  the  condition  experienced  in  Brisbane,  when  and  as  often 
as  may  please  its  violent  socialistic  leaders,  whose  creed  is 
"No  God,  No  Master,  No  Church,  No  Religion,  No  Morality, 
No  Society.  Just  Anarchy." 

When  these  men  have  completely  dammed  the  rivers  of  in- 
dustry and  choked  the  streams  of  prosperity  perhaps  Australia 
will  awake  from  her  slumbers  and  break  down  the  barriers  to 
her  progress  and  development  which  they  have  erected. 

According  to  the  report  of  the  Chief  Statistician  for  the 
Commonwealth,  in  February,  1914,  in  the  six  capital  cities,  the 
average  purchasing  power  of  175.  7d.  in  1901  was  equivalent  to 
2os.  in  1911,  and  225.  id.  in  1913.  And  the  rent  buying  power 
of  155.  id.  in  1901  was  equal  to  2os.  in  1911,  and  225.  4d.  in 


The  same  report  gives  the  number  of  industrial  disputes  for 
the  year  1913  as  208,  in  which  the  number  of  workers  involved 
was  50,283  ;  the  number  of  working  days  lost  622,535  ;  the  esti- 
mated loss  in  wages  £288,101  ($1,400,170),  and  the  average  loss 
per  head  £5  145.  7d.  In  addition  to  which,  the  report  estimates 
the  loss  in  output  at  £1,400,000  ($6,804,000);  the  loss  to  em- 
ployers directly  concerned,  at  £140,000  ($680,400),  and  the  re- 
sultant indirect  losses  and  damage  to  business  and  the  trade  as 
very  large  in  comparison  with  the  direct  losses. 

A  close  examination  into  the  history  of  organized  labor  in 
Australasia  reveals  the  same  conditions  that  prevail  in  the  United 
States  and  other  countries,  with  something  added  for  good 

72 


measure.  The  more  radical  Socialists  find  the  places  of  trust  in 
the  organization  and  occupy  them.  Drunk  with  the  power  of 
organization,  they  side-track  reason  and  appeal  to  treason,  rather 
than  to  common  sense,  and  proceed  to  enforce  their  own  radical 
views  upon  the  community  no  matter  how  great  the  tendency 
toward  the  downfall  of  society  and  their  own  ultimate  ruin 
may  be.  Irrespective  of  statute  law  or  economic  conditions  they 
seek  to  establish  a  system  of  equality  for  themselves  at  the  ex- 
pense of  everybody  else  and  contrary  to  the  economic  law  of 
nature  which,  in  spite  of  all  that  they  have  ever  done,  or  ever  can 
do,  will  assert  itself  and  regulate  the  commerce  and  industries  of 
the  world.  In  this  particular,  we  found  it  quite  interesting  to  follow 
the  proceedings  of  Wages  Boards  in  their  investigations  into  the 
cost  of  living  as  compared  with  the  time  of  the  last  previous 
award,  in  order  to  establish  a  basis  upon  which  to  fix  a  new 
award.  So  while  the  Wages  Board  is  a  creature  of  written  law 
it  instinctively  proceeds  to  perform  its  function  in  accordance 
with  the  established  principle  of  the  unwritten  law  of  supply 
and  demand.  A  good  illustration  of  this  phase  of  the  subject 
was  presented  to  us  by  a  merchant  in  Sydney,  who  likened  the 
wage  question  to  a  huge  circle  of  industry  in  which  the  slaughter- 
ers, for  example,  demand  and  receive  an  additional  shilling. 
Then  the  "butchers,  the  bakers,  and  the  broom-stick  makers" 
and  all  the  other  occupants  of  the  circle,  each  in  their  turn, 
demand  and  receive  an  additional  shilling  and  by  and  by  the 
slaughterers  say,  we  are  no  better  off  with  the  additional  shilling 
than  we  were  before  we  got  it.  All  prices  are  higher  and  we 
must  have  another  shilling,  and  so  the  circle  keeps  moving. 
Apropos  to  this  illustration,  is  a  leading  article  in  the  Sydney 
Bulletin  of  April  9,  1914,  a  weekly  publication,  which  is  here 
reproduced  in  full.  The  article  is  of  especial  significance  because 
of  the  fact  that  it  appeared  in  a  publication  that  is  said  to  lean 
strongly  to  the  side  of  the  labor  unions.  It  follows : 

THE  WAGE  QUESTION,  AND  ABOUT  100  SIDE  ISSUES. 
The  outstanding  feature  of  industrial  life  in  Australia  today  is  the 
strike  or  the  arbitration — too  often  it  is  the  strike — for  better  wages  and 
better  conditions  and  shorter  hours.  The  next  most  prominent  feature 
is  the  clamor  about  high  prices  and  high  rents,  about  the  increased  cost 
of  living  and  the  increased  cost  of  dying,  and  the  prohibitive  price  of 
burial.  The  unrest  is  especially  marked  in  New  South  Wales,  because 
that  State  has  been  indulging  in  a  loan  boom  of  heroic  dimensions,  and, 
for  some  reason  that  it  is  not  easy  to  define,  it  is  in  the  sere  and  yellow 
tail-end  of  a  boom  that  industrial  troubles  are  most  numerous.  In  Sydney, 
which  is  the  center  of  the  excitement,  the  cost  of  the  place  which  we 
occupy  when  above  the  ground  has  been  increased  because  there  has 
been  a  great  upwardness  in  the  wages  of  the  carpenter,  mason,  brick- 
layer, brickmaker,  paperhanger,  quarryman,  etc.  Also  the  cost  of  shifting 
materials  is  far  greater  than  it  used  to  be,  and  land  to  build  upon  has 

73 


been  run  up  to  an  insane  figure  by  the  congestion  policy  which  tries  to 
crowd  all  the  trade  and  finance  and  most  of  the  new  population  of  the 
State  into  one  bottle-necked  city.  Then  the  loan  boom  has  created  a 
feverish  condition,  and  the  landlord  has  been  hustling  for  all  he  could 
get,  and  repairs  cost  more  than  they  did,  and  rates  have  gone  up,  and 
the  price  of  garbage-removal  is  greater,  because  the  community  is  be- 
coming more  civilised,  and  is  taking  more  trouble — which  means  expense — 
about  sanitation,  and  is  more  desirous  that  its  tenements  should  be 
habitable.  As  for  the  place  which  we  occupy  below  ground,  the  miser- 
ably ill-paid  mute  had  to  get  a  trifle,  and  the  tombstone-maker  required 
a  little  extra  per  week  to  counterbalance  the  increased  price  of  existence, 
and  it  is  even  alleged  that  the  old  black  horse  which  drags  the  late 
lamented  to  his  home  of  clods  has  received  an  additional  feed,  but  this 
is  uncertain. 

*  *      * 

As  a  general  rule,  a  country  of  high  wages  and  high  cost  of  living 
is  a  good  one  to  inhabit,  and  low-wage  and  cheap-living  country  isn't. 
There  are  exceptions  of  course,  for  a  high  wage  may  be  the  temporary 
result  of  an  influx  of  foreign  loans,  or  of  mad  speculation  in  wild  cats, 
or  may  be  partly  brought  about  by  selling  the  public  estate  to  all  and 
sundry,  and  treating  the  proceeds  as  revenue.  But  on  the  whole  the  rule 
is  sound.  In  the  country  where  wages  and  prices  are  lofty  there  is  the 
largest  margin  between  earnings  and  expenditure ;  the  standard  of  living 
is  best,  and  the  savings  are  greatest.  If  the  community — assuming  it  is 
a  well-governed  and  well-ordered  community — isn't  satisfied  with  the 
savings  and  the  standard  of  living,  then  the  only  thing  that  remains  is  to 
do  more  work,  or  to  invent  better  machinery,  so  that  it  may  be  possible 
to  produce  better  results  with  the  same  amount  of  work.  This  is  an 
obvious  proposition,  based  on  the  fact  that  no  more  can  come  out  of  a 
pot  than  has  been  put  in  it.  Unfortunately  the  Political  Drunk  is  always 
with  us.  There  is  the  one  who  thinks  that  the  way  to  be  a  high-wage 
man  in  a  cheap-living  community  is  to  import  low-price  colored  labor — 
slave  or  otherwise.  He  is  a  Fat  person  and  wholly  ignorant  and  objec- 
tionable, and  his  belltopper  is  a  horror.  Then  there  is  the  Free  Trade 
person,  sometimes  Fat  and  sometimes  Lean,  who  hopes  to  achieve  the 
same  millennium  by  importing,  not  the  cheap,  enslaved  worker,  but  the 
cheap  slave  goods  of  his  manufacture.  There  are  other  devices  for 
living  in  cheap  houses  put  up  by  expensive  labor,  and  for  having  cheap 
food  grown  by  highly  remunerated  growers ;  and  for  travelling  at  low 
rates  on  railways  built  and  worked  by  costly  people,  and  for  doing  less 
toil  and  getting  more  for  it.  But  they  all  come  up  against  the  ultimate 
fact  that  the  pot,  in  the  long  run,  can't  supply  more  than  its  contents. 

*  *      * 

Taking  New  South  Wales  as  a  case  in  point,  that  State  produced 
in  1912 — later  figures  are  not  yet  available — wealth  to  the  estimated  value 
of  ^74,100,000.  That  included  the  cow  and  the  wheat,  the  coal  that  was 
dug  up  and  the  tree  that  was  cut  down,  the  gold,  silver  and  lead,  the 
factory  products — even  the  output  of  the  hen  and  the  bee  and  the  rabbit. 
The  total  represented  something  like  £41  per  inhabitant,  and  as  the  wages 
paid  must  have  some  dim  relation  to  the  value  of  the  goods  produced, 
it  is  plain  that  wages  have  their  limitations.  A  coin  may  do  marvels  in 
the  way  of  paying  many  men's  wages  in  a  year,  but  the  limitations 
remain.  The  farmer  gets  one  crop  of  wheat  per  annum,  and  it  is  eaten 
once,  and  then  it  is  gone,  and  his  possible  wage  fund  for  the  year  is  the 
value  of  his  output — no  more  and  no  less.  Certainly  last  year  New 
South  Wales  borrowed  something  abroad— about  £4  IDS.  per  inhabitant 
to  be  accurate,  which  represented  some  £22  los.  for  an  average  family  of 
five,  a  figure  which  works  out  at  nearly  QS.  per.  week.  Therefore  foreign 
borrowing  represented  the  State's  fifth  biggest  industry.  It  brought  in 
more  than  fisheries,  or  forests,  or  dairying,  or  the  group  of  minor  jobs 

74 


which  arc  lumped  together  as  "Poultry,  bees,  rabbits,  etc."  It  was  only 
beaten  by  the  pastoral  business,  by  agriculture,  by  mining  and  by  manu- 
factures, and  borrowing  ran  both  agriculture  and  mining  very  close 
indeed.  But  this  is  only  a  temporary  relief,  and  as  a  set-off  the  export 
of  interest  is  eating  a  dreadful  hole  in  the  State's  production.  In  the 
long  run,  the  wage  possibilities  of  a  country  can  be  guessed  at  by  the 
value  of  what  it  produces,  less  the  net  amount  it  has  to  pay  to  the  foreign 
creditor  from  whom  it  got  the  loan  of  the  dead  horse  in  the  days  when 
it  took  no  thought  for  the  morrow. 

*  *       * 

A  community  that  is  loaded  with  foreign  debt  has  its  special 
limitations.  It  has  to  sell  a  large  proportion  of  its  produce  abroad  to 
meet  the  interest  bill.  It  has  to  sell  whether  it  can  spare  the  goods  or  not, 
and  whether  prices  are  good  or  bad.  In  fact,  it  has  to  sell  at  the  foreign 
buyer's  market  figure  and  be  glad  to  get  it.  This  foreign  price,  to  some 
extent,  fixes  local  prices  in  the  industries  affected,  and  all  the  kick  in  the 
world  hasn't  yet  succeeded  in  raising  wages  beyond  the  limit  that  these 
prices  will  stand.  The  worst-paid  industries  are  those  in  which  men  grow 
the  goods  that  are  mainly  sold  to  Bull  at  the  other  end  of  the  world — 
sold  at  Bull's  valuation  to  cover  the  interest  on  the  debts  which  Bull  lent 
us  at  his  own  valuation,  and  which  he  renews  at  his  own  valuation  when 
the  account  falls  due.  There  really  seems  to  be  altogether  too  much  of 
Bull's  valuation  and  Bull's  option  in  this  borrowing  business. 

*  *      * 

It  might  possibly  be  well  if  trades  unionism  devoted  itself  a  little 
less  to  the  frontal  attack  and  a  little  more  to  a  subtle  circumventing  of 
the  enemy.  It  is  good  to  push  up  wages,  but  wages  won't  go  up  beyond 
a  certain  point,  no  matter  how  much  they  are  pushed,  unless  conditions 
are  altered.  There  are  schemes  for  forcibly  shoving  down  rents  by 
putting  a  dead  weight  on  top  of  them.  And  there  was  recently  a  scheme 
for  shoving  down  the  price  of  local  meat  by  stopping  the  export  of  meat  to 
foreign  parts.  If  the  proposition  had  succeeded  it  would  probably  have 
spoiled  the  next  foreign  loan,  for  the  exported  meat  helps  to  pay  the 
interest,  and  when  the  loan  failed  the  partially  built  railways  wouJd  have 
stopped,  and  thousands  of  unemployed  navvies  would  have  swarmed  to 
Sydney  and  started  wharf-lumping  for  a  living.  And  their  competition 
would  have  reduced  the  wages  of  the  men  who  refused  to  load  the  meat 
for  export,  and  they  would  be  forced  to  do  with  less  meat,  and  there 
would  have  been  astonishment  all  round.  Three  propositions  might  be 
worth  considering.  One  is  that  trades  unionism  should  devote  itself 
more  to  digging  up  improved  methods  of  production  so  that  the  output 
of  the  country  may  be  a  great  deal  more  than  £41  per  head,  and  there 
may  be  a  bigger  possible  wage  fund  to  divide.  Another  is  that  it  should 
toil  a  great  deal  harder  at  eliminating  the  middleman — especially  the 
foreign  one,  who  is  a  great  deal  worse  than  the  local  article,  inasmuch 
as  he  doesn't  spend  his  profits  in  the  country.  The  foreign  importer,  who 
is  persistently  cockered  up  by  the  Labor  policy  of  "sinking  the  fiscal 
issue"  is  a  very  expensive  burden.  And  among  needless  local  burdens  is  the 
one  absurdly  big  city,  and  the  needless  distances  that  goods  have  to  travel 
to  reach  that  city.  And  by  way  of  a  third  proposition,  trade  unionism, 
and  the  Labor  Party  of  which  it  is  the  foundation,  might  think  a  great 
deal  harder  about  leaving  off  the  debt  habit  and  eliminating  the  foreign 
money-lender.  For  he  lends  us  money  at  his  own  figure,  and  when  the 
loan  falls  due  he  renews  it  at  his  own  figure,  and  the  country  has  to  sell 
him  wheat  and  frozen  beef  and  sundries  in  his  own  market  at  his  own 
figure  in  order  to  find  the  wherewithal  to  meet  the  liability.  All  these 
things  complicate  the  wage  problem  exceedingly. 

*  *      * 

At  the  basis  of  the  whole  trouble  lies  the  fact  that  the  output  of 

75 


all  New  South  Wales  industries  only  represents  £41  per  inhabitant,  and 
there  are  a  multitude  of  absurd  importers,  frauds,  loafers,  sharks,  middle- 
men, speculators,  loan-mongers,  and  the  like  gnawing  at  that  amount — 
there  may  be  even  too  many  trades  union  secretaries  and  a  superfluity  of 
archbishops.  And  it  isn't  such  a  very  large  amount  of  production  per 
head  whatever  way  you  look  at  it.  The  wage  question,  at  the  last  resort, 
comes  up  against  the  fact  that  all  that  can  possibly  come  out  of  a  pot 
is  the  quantity  that  is  in  it. 

In  the  course  of  an  address  by  the  Hon.  A.  H.  Whittingham, 
President  of  the  United  Pastoralists  Association  of  Queensland, 
he  said: 

Naturally,  the  first  matter  which  engages  one's  attention  is  the 
record  of  the  industrial  troubles  which  have  occurred  in  the  district. 
Prominent  among  these  was  the  attempt  made  by  the  Carriers'  Union 
to  force  all  our  loading  through  the  Carriers'  Union  Office  under  Car- 
riers' Union  conditions,  and  practically  denying  to  the  employer  any  right 
to  make  his  own  carriage  arrangements.  By  this  action  on  their  part  the 
Carriers'  Union  was  infringing  upon  the  basic  principle  on  which  our 
association  was  founded — namely,  the  maintenance  of  freedom  of  con- 
tract. It  was,  therefore,  imperative  upon  us,  if  we  wished  to  maintain 
our  individual  freedom,  in  the  management  of  our  business,  that  such 
an  attack  should  be  fought  to  the  uttermost. 

A  very  significant  contribution  to  the  history  of  industrial 
conditions  in  New  South  Wales  is  contained  in  a  letter  from  the 
Melbourne  correspondent  of  the  London  Economist,  published 
in  the  Economist  under  date  May  17,  1913,  as  follows: 

LABOR  DISPUTES  IN  NEW  SOUTH  WALES. 

Labor  disputes  in  New  South  Wales  have  of  late  been  of  an  unusu- 
ally serious  character.  Notwithstanding  the  Arbitration  Act,  under  which 
strikes  and  lock-outs  were  to  be  penalized,  and  notwithstanding  that  in 
two  or  three  instances  the  arbitration  machinery  had  been  set  going  in 
the  Court,  large  bodies  of  men  have  insisted  upon  their  claims  being 
granted  without  examination. 

Virtually,  therefore,  the  principle  of  arbitration  has  been  aban- 
doned in  New  South  Wales,  and  the  Labor  Ministry  has  only  to  register 
the  formulated  demands  of  the  men.  The  strikes  have  occurred  with 
extreme  suddenness.  With  little  premonition  of  what  was  coming 
Sydney  was  plunged  into  darkness  at  new  moon  time  by  the  strike  of 
the  gasworkers,  who  refused  to  submit  their  claims  to  the  Court.  The 
Ministry  was  placed  in  a  dilemma.  The  law  really  necessitated  a  support 
of  the  gas  companies  pending  arbitration,  but  it  could  not  afford  to 
break  with  the  men  who,  as  unionists,  are  members  of  the  Labor  Party. 
Ultimately  the  Government  induced  the  companies  to  yield  to  the  men, 
the  compensation  being  that  the  Act  passed  a  few  months  ago  regulating 
the  price  of  gas  is  to  be  amended,  so  that  the  maximum  price  will  be 
3d  per  1,000  higher. 

Another  strike,  still  dragging  itself  along,  was  that  of  the  miners 
employed  in  the  Southern  Collieries.  It  was  ostensibly  occasioned  by  the 
dismissal  of  an  employee,  but  other  grievances  were  alleged,  although 
a  judicial  award  has  recently  been  made.  The  mine  proprietors  were 
asked  by  the  Industrial  Registrar  to  consider  the  proposals  of  the  men, 
but  they  replied  in  the  following  terms : 

In  the  circumstances  of  the  present  stoppage  of  work  at  the  Southern 
Collieries  the  proprietors  will  not  discuss  any  alleged  grievances.  The 

76 


employees  have  wantonly  broken  the  award,  which,  inter  alia,  provides 
that  in  no  circumstances  shall  work  cease  except  after  giving  fourteen 
days'  notice.  The  proprietors  feel  that  they  represent  in  this  matter  the 
principle  of  obedience  to  the  law  of  the  contract,  without  which  no 
civilized  community  could  hold  together.  Their  decision  therefore  is 
that  the  men  must  return  to  work  and  recognize  the  award,  which  is 
equally  binding  on  employer  and  employee.  They  now  look  to  the  Gov- 
ernment to  uphold  the  law,  and  feel  that  if  awards  or  agreements  are 
to  be  continually  violated  the  status  of  compulsory  arbitration  will  be- 
come a  dead  letter. 

From  another  quarter  a  startling  sensation  was  sprung  upon  the 
Sydney  public.  Owing  to  the  expansion  of  Sydney  along  the  harbor, 
with  its  numerous  inlets,  a  large  traffic  is  carried  on  by  ferry  steamers, 
and  principally  by  the  Sydney  Ferries,  Limited.  Without  a  preliminary 
statement  of  grievances  and  claims,  the  men  struck  as  from  the  morn- 
ing of  Good  Friday  to  the  great  inconvenience  of  the  public.  The  blow 
was  struck  with  the  intention  of  impressing  the  public  with  the  great 
power  possessed  by  the  firemen  and  deck  hands. 

Again,  a  great  deal  of  palavering  followed  between  the  men,  the 
company  and  the  Government.  The  strike  leaders  demanded  that  the 
Government  should  seize  the  company's  boats  and  work  the  service  itself 
at  the  company's  expense,  acceding  to  all  the  demands  of  the  men. 
The  coerced  company  capitulated,  and  is  striving  to  make  good  the  loss 
it  incurs  by  raising  fares  to  a  moderate  extent.  But  workmen  belonging 
to  the  Labor  Party  object  to  pay  the  increased  fares,  and  the  Government 
may  again  be  invoked  to  coerce  the  company. 

The  next  great  conflict  arose  from  the  determination  of  the  Barrier 
Labor  Federation  that  no  non-unionist  in  any  trade  or  occupation  should 
be  allowed  to  live  in  Broken  Hill,  a  town  containing  40,000  people,  miners, 
their  wives  and  children,  business  people  and  their  employees  and  others. 
Some  of  the  miners  have  occasionally  proved  themselves  recalcitrant, 
but  they  have  been  called  to  heel.  The  leaders  of  the  Labor  Federation 
were  not  satisfied,  and  they  resolved  to  compel  everybody  to  join  a  union. 

On  the  2nd  instant  the  employees  of  the  Silverton  Tramway  Com- 
pany (which  conveys  the  Broken  Hill  products  for  a  distance  of  36  miles), 
acting  under  orders  from  the  Labor  Federation,  struck  work  because  the 
clerks  and  other  officers  of  the  company  were  not  unionists.  The  officials 
then  formed  a  union,  but  the  directors  of  the  company  declined  to  allow 
seven  of  them  who  occupy  confidential  positions  to  remain  in  the  union. 
The  traffic  between  Broken  Hill  and  the  rest  of  the  world  has  therefore 
been  hung  up  for  a  week,  and  supplies  of  all  kinds  are  running  short. 
The  mines  are  gradually  closing,  their  storage  arrangements  for  ore  being 
inadequate. 

At  about  the  same  time  as  the  strike  at  Broken  Hill  occurred  the 
sudden  cessation  from  work  of  several  hundred  laborers  employed  by 
the  New  South  Wales  Railway  Department.  They  had  presented  claims 
which  on  their  face  were  preposterous,  and  declined  to  wait  for  a  de- 
cision of  a  wages  board.  Other  branches  of  the  service  are  actively 
displaying  sympathy,  in  deciding  not  to  handle  "black"  goods ;  that  is, 
merchandise  handled  by  free  labor.  Again  the  Government  is  at  its 
wits'  end.  There  are  now  three  contests  in  active  progress  in  New  South 
Wales,  in  defiance  of  arbitration  legislation,  viz.,  the  Southern  Collieries 
strike,  the  Broken  Hill  embroglio,  and  the  railway  strike.  The  existence 
of  the  Labor  Government  depends  upon  its  ability  to  placate  the  men, 
and  it  cannot  do  so  excepting  by  implicitly  carrying  out  their  instructions. 
Even  should  the  disputes  be  settled,  there  will  be  no  guarantee  that 
further  troubles  will  not  arise. 

Of  equal  significance  with  the  above  letter  is  an  interview 
with  Mr.  Howard  W.  Berry,  President  of  the  Associated 

77 


Chambers  of  Australia,  as  published  in  the  Manufacturers  News, 
Chicago,  May  15,  1913,  and  from  which  the  following  is  quoted: 
Wages  have  been  advanced  steadily,  as  the  labor  unions  say,  to 
meet  the  cost  of  living,  but  they  won't,  admit  that  the  advancing  wages 
have  been  an  important  element  in  the  higher  cost  of  living,  which  of 
course  is  apparent  to  economists.  The  industrial  interests  have  advanced 
wages  steadily  out  of  proportion  to  their  earnings  rather  than  to  submit 
to  trade  demoralizing  strikes,  but  there  must  be  a  limit  to  such  advances. 
If  Australia  should  have  a  dry  season  it  would  cause  widespread  depres- 
sion and  employers,  I  suppose,  would  simply  let  their  men  go  on  a  strike. 


LABOR  IMMUNE  AGAINST  LAW. 

Employers  must  obey  the  laws  governing  the  arbitration  of  labor 
questions  or  suffer  heavy  fines  or  imprisonment.  They  must  pay  the 
wages  fixed  by  arbitration  boards.  Labor,  however,  has  been  able  to 
ignore  the  awards  with  impunity.  If  Labor  is  not  satisfied  with  an 
award  made  by  an  arbitration  board,  Labor  goes  on  strike  the  same  as 
in  this  country.  It  is  impossible  to  punish  the  strikers.  There  wouldn't 
be  enough  room  in  all  the  jails  to  accommodate  them.  It  has  been  found 
impossible  to  make  the  men  work  unless  they  want  to,  but  employers  can 
be  severely  punished  for  locking  their  men  out.  *  *  * 

The  Labor  Party  has  been  successful  in  Australia,  not  because  it 
has  more  votes,  but  because  it  is  so  much  better  organized  than  the 
Liberal  that  it  is  able  to  get  out  the  vote.  The  vote  of  the  women  has 
largely  contributed  to  the  success  of  the  Labor  movement.  Women  iden- 
tified with  the  Labor  Party  never  fail  to  vote,  but  the  other  class  pays 
much  less  attention  to  the  ballot,  being  occupied  too  often  with  social 
duties.  *  *  * 


Restriction  of  Output. 

Notwithstanding  the  fact  that  Australasian  unions,  as  every- 
where else,  indignantly  deny  that  restriction  of  output  is  a  re- 
sultant feature  of  unionism,  the  evidence  on  every  hand  is  so 
manifest  that  any  attempt  of  the  unions  at  denial  of  the  charge 
sinks  into  ridiculous  insignificance.  As  a  case  in  point,  the 
Melbourne  Argus,  in  its  issue  of  March  3,  1912,  published  an 
item  entitled  "Bricklaying  Records,"  in  which  it  was  shown  that 
in  four  and  one-half  hours  four  bricklayers  laid  5608  bricks, 
an  average  of  374  bricks  per  hour,  per  man.  Commenting  on 
the  circumstance,  another  authority  said  this  was  an  eye-opener 
to  the  contractors  of  Melbourne,  but  it  was  a  greater  eye-opener  to 
the  Bricklayers'  Union  that  any  union  men  should  be  such  fools 
as  to  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag  by  proving  that  the  ordinary  layer 
of  bricks,  who  lays  some  400  to  500  a  day,  had  been  nearly 
equalled  in  capacity  by  one  of  these  men  in  an  hour.  The  result 
was  that  the  union  fiat  went  out,  and  the  public,  who  had 
gathered  around  the  building  in  Bourke  Street  the  next  morning 
to  witness  a  further  test  for  a  record,  were  disappointed,  the  men 
having  fallen  back  to  the  usual  pace.  We  made  a  number  of  in- 

78 


quiries  in  New  Zealand  and  Australia  as  to  the  number  of  bricks 
laid  for  a  day's  work  and  the  answers  varied  from  450  to  550, 
whereas  2000  is  a  fair  average  for  a  day's  work  of  eight  hours. 
Whether  or  not  the  "stint"  is  fixed  by  the  union,  the  fact  is,  the 
laziest  or  slowest  man  in  the  trade  .controls  the  brake  to  energy 
and  efficiency  and  sets  the  pace  for  all. 

In  this  connection  the  following  from  the  Adelaide  Adver- 
tiser, of  Nov.  20,  1912,  is  significant: 

Because  he  broke  his  pledge  to  the  executive  of  the  Iron  and  Brass 
Moulders'  Union  that  he  would  not  do  more  than  a  certain  amount  of 
work,  a  moulder,  still  employed  by  Messrs.  A.  Simpson  &  Son,  has  been 
expelled  from  that  organisation,  and  it  has  been  hinted  that  members  of 
the  union  will  consider  the  question  whether  or  not  their  employment  in 
the  establishment  shall  continue  alongside  a  non-unionist. 

During  the  hearing  of  the  recent  Ironmoulders'  Wages  Board 
appeal  case,  the  Hon.  J.  H.  Vaughan  drew  from  one  of  the  employers' 
witnesses  (Mr.  A.  A.  Simpson)  the  surprising  statement  that  the  secretary 
of  the  Ironmoulders'  Union  (Mr.  F.  B.  Spafford)  had  written  to  one 
of  Messrs.  A.  Simpson  &  Son's  employees  requesting  him  to  reduce  his 
earnings.  The  incident  has  resulted  in  the  expulsion  of  the  stove  moulder 
from  the  union  for  earning  more  than  £3  35.  gd.  per  week.  It  seems  that 
some  months  ago  Messrs.  A.  Simpson  &  Son,  rinding  that  moulders  in 
Sydney  were  making  105  washing  copper  castings  a  week,  offered  this 
moulder  a  bonus  of  pd.  in  addition  to  his  wage  of  £3,  for  all  the  castings 
he  could  make  weekly  in  excess  of  50.  This  was  not  an  illiberal  offer, 
as  if  the  moulder  has  reached  the  Sydney  output  his  wages  would  have 
been  £5  is.  3d.  The  moulder,  so  encouraged,  at  once  made  over  60  castings 
per  week,  but  the  executive  of  the  union,  at  a  meeting  held  in  August, 
decided  that  the  work  was  in  excess  of  that  prescribed  by  the  under- 
standing, which  is  said  to  prevail  in  all  local  foundries,  and  in  the 
letter  referred  to  ordered  the  moulder  to  reduce  his  castings  to  50  per 
week — though  he  was  quite  able  to  make  65  and  earn  75.  6d.  a  week  more. 
The  moulder  at  first  paid  attention  to  this  request,  but  at  last,  failing 
to  see  why  he  should  reduce  his  wages  he  defied  the  authorities, -with 
the  result  mentioned.  His  employers  complain  that  the  enforced  restric- 
tion of  output  is  hampering  their  operations.  They  are  now  importing  cast- 
ings from  Scotland,  which  they  formerly  made  here,  and  during  the  past 
year  have  so  imported  many  thousands  from  Great  Britain.  Meanwhile, 
it  is  stated  that  another  local  foundry  has  also  been  partly  abandoning 
manufacturing  for  importing,  solely  owing  to  this  restriction  of  output. 

The  foregoing  extract  was  furnished  us  by  Mr.  Simpson 
himself,  who  is  Mayor  of  Adelaide.  He  informed  us  that  the 
expelled  union  member  was  still  working  for  his  firm  and  was 
averaging  90  castings  a  week  and  earning  from  $6  to  $7  a  week 
more  than  the  union  allowance.  It  will  be  of  interest  to  note 
here,  that  not  many  years  ago  the  city  of  Adelaide  secured  a 
new  charter,  differing  somewhat  from  other  chartered  munici- 
palities in  that  it  contains  special  voting  qualifications  in  matters 
relating  to  municipal  affairs,  whereby,  in  voting  on  general  ques- 
tions every  property' owner  or  occupier  has  one  vote  and  limited 
corporations  three  votes  in  the  ward  or  precinct  in  which  the 
plant  or  business  is  located.  On  financial  questions  the  same 

79 


qualifications  prevail,  but  the  voting  is  on  a  sliding  scale  based  on 
rental  value,  assessed  by  city  valuation  as  follows :  One  vote  on 
£25  and  under,  two  votes  on  £25  to  £35,  three  votes  on  £35  to  £45, 
four  votes  on  £45  to  £55,  five  votes  on  £55  to  £65  and  six  votes  on 
over  £65.  As  a  result  of  these  special  voting  qualifications,  the 
Labor  Party  is  unable  to  secure  more  than  a  scant  representa- 
tion in  municipal  affairs;  there  being  but  one  Representative  in 
the  city  council  at  the  time  of  our  visit  to  Adelaide. 

Another  example  along  the  line  of  decreased  efficiency  was 
given  us  by  the  Mayor  of  an  Australian  city,  a  contractor  and 
merchant,  who,  in  discussing  labor  conditions  in  Australia,  said : 
"This  country  appears  to  be  going  bad  very  fast.  The  indif- 
ference and  independent  attitude  of  the  working  people  and  the 
high  wages  which  must  be  paid  for  poor  service,  is  getting  to  be 
intolerable  and  it's  a  question  how  long  we  can  stand  it." 
"Why,"  said  he,  "the  commoner  the  labor  the  more  it  costs, 
and  there  is  an  oversupply  at  that;  just  think  of  a  situation  like 
this.  We  have  to  pay  common  laborers  is.  lod.  (44  cents)  an 
hour  for  regular  time  and  up  to  55.  7d.  ($1.25)  an  hour  for 
overtime  work,  Sunday  night  work  being  paid  for  at  four  times 
the  regular  rates.  Labor  unions  and  Labor  legislation  are  put- 
ting everybody  to  the  bad  and  making  a  sorry  mess  of  the  coun- 
try." He  told  of  a  case,  just  the  day  before,  where  a  wharf 
laborer  was  wheeling  three  bags  of  grain  on  a  truck.  One  fell 
off,  the  man  stopped,  lit  his  pipe  and  deliberately  waited  25 
minutes  until  another  laborer,  whose  business  it  was  to  load 
the  trucks,  came  along  and  put  the  bag  on  the  truck  again,  when 
laborer  No.  i  proceeded  to  wheel  the  grain  to  the  ship.  He 
cited  this  as  one  of  many  incidents  of  the  abuses  which  the  people 
are  compelled  to  endure  by  reason  of  the  intolerable  condition 
into  which  the  industrial  situation  has  drifted,  and  said  there 
must  be  a  day  of  reckoning  soon,  and  the  president  of  the 
Chamber  of  Commerce  added :  "The  great  drawbacks  to  Australia 
are  lack  of  people  and  labor  legislation."  Another  business  man 
volunteered  the  suggestion  that  "all  that  ails  Australia  is  dearth 
of  population  and  the  unbearable  condition  of  its  labor  market." 

A  member  of  a  large  rice  importing  firm  in  Melbourne  said 
_  they  were  paying  25  per  cent  more  for  labor  now  than  when  they 
averaged  700  tons  unloading  against  400  tons  under  present  con- 
ditions. 

The  question,  "Is  olive  growing  a  profitable  industry  in 
Australia?"  was  asked  an  official  in  the  office  of  the  Minister  of 
Agriculture  for  South  Australia.  The  response  was :  "Not  now, 
but  it  used  to  be  before  the  labor  problem  killed  it."  While 

80 


passing  through  the  works  of  one  of  the  Government  railways, 
the  manager  told  us  that  on  account  of  the  labor  situation  it 
was  his  determination  to  install  a  machine  whenever  he  could 
displace  a  man  by  doing  so ;  that  he  had  no  difficulty  in  managing 
machines,  but  with  men  it  was  often  <a  question  of  whether,  he 
or  they  were  running  the  shops. 

The  head  of  a  rubber  firm,  with  whom  we  conversed,  stated 
that  his  firm  had  until  recently  employed  100  people  in  the  manu- 
facture of  rubber  goods,  but  that  the  labor  situation  had  become 
so  rotten  that  they  decided  to  close  their  factory;  that  they  ar- 
ranged for  the  agency  of  several  American  manufacturers,  whom 
they  now  represent,  and  have  rid  themselves  of  the  torments  they 
were  forced  to  endure  as  manufacturers  and  are  making  more 
money.  An  official  of  another  and  much  larger  rubber  manu- 
facturing plant  said  that  they  were  trying  to  get  along  as  best 
they  could  under  present  conditions,  but  that  their  experience 
was  no  exception  to  the  rule,  and  that  manufacturing  in  Australia 
was  a  tough  proposition.  Again,  an- official  of  a  large  engineering 
plant  which  was  then  in  the  midst  of  a  long  drawn  out  strike,  ex- 
pressed himself  as  thoroughly  disgusted  with  industrial  conditions. 

Wage  Earners'  Views. 

The  suggestion  thrown  out  to  a  waiter  at  the  Hotel  Aus- 
tralia, that  "this  country  is  a  paradise  for  the  working  man," 
brought  an  unexpected  and  somewhat  surprising  rejoinder.  He 
said  he  was  born  in  England  and  married  in  Australia;  that  he 
worked  five  years  in  the  United  States,  one  year  in  the  Conti- 
nental Hotel,  Philadelphia,  and  two  years  at  Atlantic  City;  that 
he  was  going  back  to  the  United  States  as  soon  as  he  could  raise 
enough  money  to  cover  the  expense;  that  Australia  is  no  place 
for  a  working  man  who  has  any  ambition  ever  to  be  anything 
else ;  that  he  found  it  much  harder  to  get  along  in  Australia  than 
in  the  United  States  notwithstanding  all  the  blow  about  its  being 
the  "workingman's  paradise" ;  that  there  are  more  tramps  and  low 
down  poverty  in  Australia  than  in  the  United  States  in  proportion 
to  population ;  that  production  and  efficiency  are  getting  so  low  in 
Australia  that  the  wealth  of  the  country  is  being  eaten  up  and 
that,  bye  and  bye,  there  will  be  nothing  but  poverty  unless  things 
change  materially.  We  failed  to  observe  very  much  of  the  low 
down  poverty  to  which  this  man  alluded,  but  we  did,  while  on 
a  motor  trip  of  no  miles  out  of  Sydney,  pass  no  less  than  eight 
tramps,  with  their  belongings  swung  over  their  backs,  who  were 
ostensibly  looking  for  work  but  afraid  they  would  find  it.  What- 
ever may  be  the  necessity  to  tramp  very  far  to  find  work  in  either 

81 


Australia  or  New  Zealand,  the  "soap-box"  orator  is  very  much 
in  evidence  in  both  of  these  countries.  In  Wellington  we 
stopped  and  listened  to  one  of  these  "World  Reformers"  who 
was  haranguing  a  crowd  of  about  25  men,  urging  the  workers 
of  the  Dominion  to  drop  ^raft  organizations  and  join  the  "one 
big  union  which,  when  perfected,  will  drive  capitalism  into  the 
sea,  and  then  the  workers'  millennium  will  come."  In  Sydney, 
where  there  are  a  number  of  large  areas  set  apart  for  the  use 
of  the  public,  these  agitators  "wax  fat"  and  can  be  seen  by  the 
dozens  every  Sunday  afternoon  shouting  the  same  sort  of  doc- 
trine to  hundreds  and  thousands  of  listeners,  very  much  to  the 
discomfort  of  industrious,  home-loving  citizens,  and  to  no  good 
results  to  the  country  as  ,a  whole. 

One  mechanic  with  whom  we  discussed  labor  conditions 
said:  "The  unions  would  be  all  right  if  they  didn't 'try  to  get  the 
earth  without  earning  it,  and  would  act  with  decency  and  in 
reason,  but  they  don't.  A  working  man  must  either  give  up  his 
self-respect  and  abandon  his  independence  or  stand  to  be 
hounded  by  an  organized  minority  of  his  fellows  who  are  always 
shouting  about  the  'brotherhood  of  man'  and,  at  the  same  time, 
trying  to  force  their  brother  workmen,  who  don't  submit  to  being 
driven  like  sheep,  into  a  condition  of  union  servitude  that  has 
already  made  Australia,  with  all  its  shorter  hours  and  many 
holidays,  a  mighty  poor  country  for  a  workingman,  with  any 
ambition  to  get  up  in  the  world  or  raise  a  family  to  become 
anything  more  than  laborers,  to  live  in.  Their  idea  is  to  keep 
on  getting  more  money  for  less  work,  instead  of  getting  more 
money  for  more  work,  as  they  should  do.  And  what  does  it  all 
amount  to?  Nothing.  We  can't  buy  as  much  for  the  money  we 
get  now  as  we  could  when  we  got  less  and  things  didn't  cost  so 
much,  and  besides,  the  unions  have  knocked  merit  sky-high. 
I  believe,  just  as  much  as  any  of  these  socialistic  agitators  do,  that 
labor  creates  wealth,  but  I  don't  believe  that  the  way  for  the  work- 
ing people  to  get  more  wealth  is  for  them  to  produce  less  of 
it.  That's  one  too  many  for  me." 

According  to  the  statement  of  the  Prime  Minister,  Mr. 
Cook,  in  his  speech  in  Parliament,  April  17,  1914,  the  total 
number  of  unionists  in  the  Commonwealth  of  Australia  is  433,000, 
(9  per  cent  of  the  total  population,  37  per  cent  of  all  the  workers, 
male  and  female,  over  20  years  of  age,)  and  of  non-unionists  734,- 
ooo.  Therefore,  the  story  of  this  man  presents  a  striking  illustra- 
tion of  the  power  of  organization  and,  from  his  viewpoint,  is  a 
clear  demonstration  that  industrial  legislation  has  proven  a  flat 
failure.  Business  men  find  it  irksome,  annoying  and  inefficient, 
and  are  at  all  times  on  the  "anxious  seat"  lest  they  be  summoned 

82 


before  this  or  that  court  for  violation  of  some  law  or  ruling  which 
they  know  nothing  about.  Furthermore,  the  fact  that  there  are 
737  separate  and  distinct  Wages  Boards  in  Australia,  with  more 
strikes  than  ever  before,  amplifies  the  old  adage,  "All  that  glitters 
is  not  gold,"  and  proves  conclusively  that  "mere  movement  is 
not  progress." 

Unionism's  Effect  on  Discipline. 

A  most  noticeable  result  of  the  domination  of  unionism  is 
its  effect  on  discipline  of  employees  about  the  hotels,  which  is 
at  a  low  ebb,  and  it  is  everywhere  apparent  that  unionism  is 
boss.  One  illustration  of  this  will  suffice  to  show  the  spirit 
which  prevails  throughout  the  hotels  and,  from  our  observations, 
in  all  other  lines  of  employment.  One  of  the  members  of  our 
party  asked  the  clerk  of  a  hotel  at  which  we  were  stopping  for 
some  stationery.  The  clerk  called  a  page  and  told  him  to  bring  it. 
The  boy  looked  up  at  the  clock,  which  registered  one  minute  to 
one,  and  indignantly  replied,  "Get  it  yourself,  I'm  off  at  one." 
The  clerk  went  for  the  stationery  without  commenting  on  the 
boy's  action.  This  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  employed  was 
so  pronounced  that  we  soon  began  to  express  sympathy  for  the 
management,  rather  than  complain  of  the  lack  of  courtesy,  or 
consideration  for  and  attention  to  the  wants  and  comfort  of  the 
hotel  guests. 

Hours  and  Wages. 

Some  scattering  mention  has  hereinbefore  been  made  of  the 
question  of  hours  and  wages,  but  in  order  that  this  phase  of  the 
subject  may  be  more  fully  given,  the  following  table  from  the 
Commonwealth  official  statistics  for  1913  is  presented.  In  the 
table,  "s"  indicates  shillings  and  "d"  pence,  the  value  of  which 
in  United  States  money  is  shown  in  the  columns  headed  "U.  S.," 
which  we  have  added  to  the  table  for  the  purpose  of  ready  com- 
parison. The  rates  given  in  the  table  are  for  regular  specified 
work-hours,  outside  of  which  overtime  is  paid  for  at  rates  stipu- 
lated in  the  various  Wages  Boards  awards. 


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Taking  the  six  capital  cities  as  a  basis  of  average,  as  shown 
elsewhere  in  this  report,  the  purchasing  power  of  money  dur- 
ing a  period  of  12  years,  1901-12,  has  depreciated  a  trifle  over  25 
per  cent,  while,  during  the  same  period,  the  average  increase  in 
wages  has  been  a  fraction  under  25  per  cent  showing  again  that, 
notwithstanding  all  the  industrial  friction  and  cost  of  political 
machinery,  the  race  has  been  neck  and  neck  with  the  economic 
law  of  supply  and  demand.  The  same  statistical  report  says: 
"Taking  the  average  for  the  six  capital  towns,  the  cost  of  living 
in  the  third  quarter  of  1913  was  25.5  per  cent  higher  than  in  1901. 
Of  that  amount  8.3  per  cent  was  due  to  increase  in  price  of  food 
and  groceries,  while  the  remaining  17.2  per  cent  was  due  to 
increase  in  house  rents." 

A  comparison  of  the  wages  enumerated  in  the  foregoing  table 
with  those  obtainable  in  the  United  States,  in  the  same  occupations, 
except  common  labor,  will  be  interesting  and  instructive  as  show- 
ing the  effect  of  Governmental  interference  with  economic  ques- 
tions. It  will  clearly  be  seen  that  wages  average  higher  in  the 
United  States  than  in  Australia,  while  from  the  most  careful 
investigation  into  the  cost  of  living  we  found  it  to  be  fully  as 
high  or  higher  in  Australia  than  in  the  United  States  and  that, 
after  all,  the  Australian  worker  pays  his  full  portion  of  the  cost 
of  the  economic  waste  of  time  and  production. 

April  27th,  while  we  were  at  Melbourne,  the  annual  Eight- 
hour  Day  parade  was  held,  in  which  there  were  estimated  to  be 
11,760  marchers,  representing  65  unions.  There  are  408  unions 
in  Australia,  of  all  kinds,  64  per  cent  of  the  total  membership 
being  organized  on  an  interstate  basis.  The  total  membership 
in  trades  unions  in  1912,  was  433,224,  of  which  415,554  were 
males  and  17,670  females;  the  total  estimated  num'ber  of  em- 
ployees 20  years  of  age  and  over,  male  and  female,  being  1,154,- 
812,  and  the  percentage  of  unionists  to  all  employees  37.52. 
The  total  number  of  factories  in  1912  is  given  as  14,878;  the 
number  of  hands  employed  328,000;  wages  paid  £31,296,000 
($152,098,560)  and  the  total  value  of  output  £148,745,000 
($722,900,700.)  The  Eight-hour  Day  is  recognized  as  a 
legal  holiday  and  takes  the  place  of  Labor  Day  in  the  United 
States.  Union  members  who  fail  to  turn  out  are  fined.  How- 
ever, there  is  a  persistent  and  vigorous  struggle  constantly  going 
on  for  still  shorter  hours,  which,  in  some  cases,  has  been  recog- 
nized, as  indicated  in  the  table.  Only  recently,  an  application 
of  the  Builders'  Laborers'  Federation  to  the  Federal  Arbitration 
Court  for  an  award  of  44  hours  a  week,  with  a  raise  in  wages  to 
equal  the  48  hours'  pay,  was  allowed  by  that  court,  and  still  more 

85 


recently  Justice  Higgins,  the  president  of  the  same  court  as 
previously  mentioned,  awarded  the  waterside  workers  a  raise 
in  wages  to  is.  pd.  an  hour,  based  on  30  hours  being  a  week's 
work.  We  were  informed  by  a  mine  operator  at  New  Castle 
that  miners  only  work  five  hours  a  day. 

This  gentleman  told  a  sad  story  of  labor  conditions  in  the 
mining  industry.  He  said,  "The  situation  is  so  bad  that  nothing 
short  of  a  revolution  will  ever  better  it,"  adding  to  this  pessi- 
mistic expression  of  opinion,  "One  of  the  finest  countries  in  the 
world  is  rapidly  going  to  the  devil."  In  this  connection  the 
following  from  the  Australian  Mining  Standard  of  June  14, 
1914,  is  worthy  of  note: 

Australia,  truth  to  tell,  has  done  very  little  with  its  gigantic  re- 
sources. Its  great  mineral  wealth  in  very  many  places  has  been  scarcely 
more  than  tapped,  and  everywhere  the  development  of  them  has  been 
hampered  by  the  restrictions  imposed  by  the  labor  clauses  of  the  Mining 
Acts  of  the  various  States,  *  *  *  but  one  thing  we  may  be  sure  of  is  that 
before  Americans  invest  any  money  here,  they  will  be  very  careful  to 
consider  how  the  position  is  affected  in  every  branch  of  industry  by 
Federal  and  State  legislation. 

But  the  steamship  companies  appear  to  experience  the 
greatest  hardships  in  the  management  of  their  business,  for  aside 
from  the  excessive  cost  of  labor  in  loading  and  unloading  cargo, 
they  never  can  tell  when  in  port  what  minute  they  will  be  held 
up  by  a  strike,  or  for  how  long.  Strikes  come  on  like  lightning 
out  of  a  clear  sky,  and  whether  their  duration  be  long  or  short 
depends  upon  the  humor  of  the  freight  handlers  who  never  give 
a  thought  to  the  inconvenience  they  cause  the  traveling  public 
or  the  losses  which  they  Impose  upon  commercial  interests.  The 
captain  of  one  of  the  ships  on  which  we  traveled  told  us  that 
on  his  previous  trip  he  left  a  cargo,  the  carrying  value  of  which 
would  amount  to  fully  $5,000,  on  the  wharf  at  one  port,  rather 
than  wait  the  pleasure  of  striking  wharf  laborers  to  load  it.  He 
said  he  always  felt  relieved  in  mind,  at  each  port,  when  his  ship 
cast  off  her  staylines,  and  wondered  whether  he  would  pass  the 
next  port  without  a  holdup. 

Holidays. 

There  are  twice  as  many  legal  holidays  in  Australasia  as 
there  are  in  the  United  States.  When  we  arrived  at  Melbourne, 
Saturday,  April  nth,  it  was  the  midst  of  Easter  Holiday  season, 
which  runs  from  Thursday  night  to  the  following  Tuesday 
morning,  except  with  the  banking  institutions,  which  stretch  it 
over  to  Wednesday.  The  ship  on  which  we  came  to  Melbourne 
had  either  to  lay  over  until  the  following  Tuesday  to  have  its 

86 


cargo  loaded  and  unloaded  or  pay  double  time  for  labor,  if  it 
could  find  any.  Suffice  it  to  say,  the  ship  waited  the  pleasure 
of  the  holiday  season.  The  following  editorial  from  the  Mel- 
bourne Argus  of  April  30,  1914,  will  be  of  interest  as  showing 
the  extent  of  the  holiday  "plague." 

MELBOURNE  ARGUS. 
(April  30,   1914.) 

Mr.  Justice  Heydon,  president  of  the  New  South  Wales  Industrial 
Court,  made  some  very  sensible  comments  on  Tuesday  on  the  holiday 
nuisance.  General  holidays  and  trade  picnic  days  are  becoming  alto- 
gether too  numerous,  and  it  is  time  that  some  regard  was  shown  for  the 
public  interest.  Strangers  visiting  Australia  are  amazed  to  observe  the 
spirit  of  resignation  in  which  the  people  submit  to  these  encroachments 
on  their  convenience.  An  occasional  day's  rest  from  physical  or  mental 
toil  is  an  excellent  tonic  for  the  individual,  arid  the  community,  of  course, 
shares  in  the  benefit.  But  in  a  country  where  the  hours  of  work  are  short 
and  strenuous  application  is  far  from  being  conspicuous  these  constant 
breaks  in  the  continuity  of  the  ordinary  services  to  the  public  are 
mischievous.  There  should  be  an  element  of  reasonableness  preserved  in 
all  things.  Trade  picnics  are,  no  doubt,  very  pleasant  festivities  for  those 
participating  in  them,  and  if  they  were  held  at  suitable  times  there  would 
be  no  special  objection  to  them.  This  is  far,  however,  from  being  the 
case.  Mr.  Justice  Heydon  remarked  that  the  Melbourne  fruiterers  had 
their  holiday  during  the  very  season  when  fruit  is  most  in  demand. 
His  Honour  happened  to  be  here  at  the  time,  and  was  evidently  deeply 
impressed  by  the  absurdity  of  the  spectacle.  It  was  about  the  severest 
day  of  the  summer,  yet  by  Act  of  Parliament  the  shopkeepers  and  hawkers 
were  forbidden  to  sell  an  ounce  of  fruit,  excepting  to  purchasers  con- 
suming it  on  the  premises.  The  folly  and  wastefulness  of  the  proceeding 
were  obvious  to  everyone;  yet  it  will  probably  be  repeated  each  summer 
for  years  to  come. 

Bakery  employees,  again,  are  persons  for  whom  every  reasonable 
consideration  should  be  shown;  but  it  is  surely  not  reasonable  that  the 
public  should  'be  forced  to  eat  stale  bread  on  26  Wednesdays  in  the 
year,  as  well  as  on  every  Sunday.  All  that  was  thought  of  when  the 
fortnightly  holiday  was  decreed  was  the  pleasure  and  convenience  of  the 
bakers  and  bread-carters ;  the  interest  of  the  consumers  was  never  for  a 
moment  considered.  So  well  do  the  employees  concerned  understand  the 
principle  on  which  these  things  are  usually  done  that  they  have  recently  been 
agitating  for  a  compulsory  system  of  day-baking.  True,  the  people  might 
dislike  eating  stale  bread;  but  what  were  trivial  objections  like  these  when 
weighed  against  the  desire  of  the  hands  employed  in  the  industry? 
What  does  the  public  exist  for  but  to  serve  the  ends  of  unionism? 
Mr.  Justice  Rich  fortunately  took  a  different  view  of  the  position  when 
the  claim  of  the  bakers  came  before  him  the  other  day,  and  for  his  pains 
will  no  doubt  be  considered  a  judge  unsympathetic  with  labour.  Mr. 
Justice  Heydon  has  rightly  declared  the  rapidly  increasing  number  of 
holidays  to  constitute  "rather  a  serious  question."  Though  the  president 
of  an  arbitration  tribunal,  he  regards  his  function  as  being  essentially 
judicial. 

He  refuses  to  shut  his  eyes  to  the  economic  consequences  involved 
in  the  claims  submitted  to  him,  and  never  fails  to  let  the  claimants  know 
when  he  thinks  them  in  the  wrong.  From  remarks  like  those  he  offered 
on  the  holiday  question,  they  learn  that  there  are  two  sides  to  every 
question,  and  that  the  mere  fact  of  a  demand  being  made  does  not  neces- 
sarily mean  that  it  will  be  conceded. 


Sunday  Observance. 

In  this  connection  it  is  pertinent  to  speak  of  the  respect 
observed  for  the  Sabbath,  which  is  both  especially  noticeable  and 
commendable.-  The  tramways  do  not  operate  their  cars  on  Sun- 
day mornings  and  not  until  one  or  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon. 
While  this  may  seem  a  great  inconvenience  to  the  public,  the 
people  appear  to  have  adjusted  themselves  to  the  custom  and 
do  not  suffer  very  much  inconvenience  from  it.  In  comment- 
ing on  this  feature  of  Australasian  life,  some  writers  have 
claimed  that  their  Sunday  observance  comes  from  the  prevalent 
desire  to  loaf,  but  this  we  believe  to  be  an  extreme  view  of  the 
matter,  and  hardly  just  to  the  large  class  of  intelligent  Christian 
people  of  these  countries. 

The  Minimum  or  Living  Wage. 

(See  former  reference) 

Referring  again  to  the  subject  of  "The  Minimum,"  or 
"Living"  Wage,  as  it  is  sometimes  called.  The  rate  of  wages 
fixed  by  the  Wages  Boards,  in  the  various  industries,  is  the 
minimum  wage  at  which  labor  may  legally  be  employed,  and 
while  higher  wages  may  be  paid,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  rates 
established  by  the  Boards  become  the  standard,  and  practically 
abolish  all  other  bartering  with  respect  thereto.  Moreover,  the 
principle  upon  which  these  boards  were  created,  and  the  chief 
reason  for  their  existence,  was  to  settle  the  question  of  wages 
and  working  conditions  by  law,  and  do  away  with  all  other  forms 
of  bargaining  and  thereby  abolish  labor  controversies  and 
strikes.  Employers  generally  accept  the  awards  of  the  Boards, 
and  being  thoroughly  organized,  a  general  understanding  pre- 
vails in  the  industries  that  the  same  shall  be  rigidly  adhered  to, 
otherwise  the  Wages  Boards  would  perform  no  function  other 
than  to  establish  a  general  starting  point  at  which  wage  agitation 
and  strikes  should  begin.  They  also  appreciate  the  fact  that  the 
payment  of  rates  higher  than  the  minimum  in  some  cases  would 
tend  to  bring  the  minimum  up  to  much  higher  rates  at  the  next 
award.  Hence,  as  a  general  rule,  the  minimum  is  also  the  maxi- 
mum. Then  again,  as  the  minimum  wage  is  necessarily  based 
upon  the  average  capacity  or  efficiency  of  all  workers  in  a  given 
industry,  those  who  are  incapable  of  "making  good"  in  produc- 
tivity to  the  value  of  the  "standard"  wage  are  not  wanted  in 
times  of  depression  and  are  only  grudgingly  employed  at  any 
time,  while  the  more  energetic  and  efficient  worker  is  compelled 
by  law  to  accept  less  for  his  services  than  they  are  worth,  or 
stultify  his  ambition  and  honor  by  producing  less  than  he  is  able 


and  willing  to  produce  if  his  natural  inclination  were  not  muzzled 
by  the  law  of  the  land.  The  effect  of  the  system  upon  the  higher 
class  of  workers  was  vividly  expressed  during  a  conversation  we 
had  at  Melbourne  with  two  such  men,  who  are  entirely  out  of 
harmony  with  industrial  conditions  as  they  prevail  in  Australia. 
One  of  them  said  that  no  self-respecting  artisan  could  be  a  happy 
and  contented  individual  when  the  laws  of  his  country  fixed  the 
compensation  he  must  accept  for  his  services  and  erected  legisla- 
tive barriers  to  his  opportunities  to  become  anything  more  than 
a  slave  to  the  ideals  of  Socialism.  "Such  conditions,"  said  he, 
"are  not  conducive  to  a  higher  standard  of  efficiency,  but,  on  the 
contrary,  they  encourage  inefficiency  and  the  devoting  of  one's 
mind  and  energy  to  the  promulgation  of  a  lower  standard  of 
civilization." 

Now,  the  avowed  object  of  the  "living  wage,"  so-called,  is 
to  insure  to  the  workers  and  their  dependants — if  they  have  any, 
as  most  workers  do — a  decent  living.  But  the  proposition  is 
fraught  with  many  difficult  problems.  Among  them,  what  con- 
stitutes a  decent  living?  How  many  "livings"  should  the  wage 
provide  for?  The  cost  of  living?  The  amount  of  efficiency  to 
be  expended  by  the  wage  recipient ;  changes  in  business  and  gen- 
eral economic  conditions ;  tariff ;  imports  and  exports ;  the  natural 
resources  of  a  country  and  the  proportionate  wealth  of  its 
people,  and  various  and  sundry  other  things,  bearing  upon  and 
subservient  to  the  economic  law  of  supply  and  demand,  and 
which,  in  combination,  present  an  insurmountable  barrier  to  a 
just  and  equitable  economic  solution  of  the  problem. 

Australia  and  New  Zealand  are  both  agricultural  countries 
having  a  combined  population  of  less  than  6,000,000  souls.  The 
unusual  prosperity  which  they  have  enjoyed  since  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  refrigeration  system  of  shipping  pensnable  products 
has  enabled  their  people  to  endure  an  amount  of  unsuccessful, 
uneconomic  and  experimental  legislation  which  would  have  caused 
the  downfall  of  some  other  countries  if  attempted. 

They  can  hardly  aspire  to  becoming  manufacturing  coun- 
tries, at  least  for  a  long  time  to  come,  and  until  they  become  suf- 
ficiently populated  to  create  a  competitive  home  market  for  manu- 
factured products.  Yet,  notwithstanding  the  vast  natural  rich- 
ness of  these  countries  and  the  homogeneousness  of  their  people, 
few  business  men,  or  men  in  public  life  who  are  not  making 
their  living  or  getting  rich  out  of  socialistic  politics,  can  be  found 
who  will  not  admit  that  the  whole  economic  scheme  of  labor 
legislation  is  a  dismal  failure  and  a  drawback  to  the  welfare  and 
development  of  both  of  these  otherwise  glorious  countries. 
They  will  tell  you  that  the  minimum  wage  is  a  harmful  and  un- 

89 


just  abridgment  of  the  rights  of  skillful  and  efficient  artisans 
who,  in  the  absence  of  such  legislation,  would  be  better  paid  for 
their  services,  that  it  simply  amounts  to  a  scheme  whereby 
"Peter  is  robbed  to  pay  Paul"  by  fixing  a  higher  minimum  wage 
than  the  inefficient,  lazy  and  indifferent  are  capable  of  earning, 
and  that  the  wages  of  the  more  highly  efficient  and  skillful 
workers  are  reduced  to  the  same  average  level.  Mr.  Robert 
S.  Walpole,  an  eminent  student  in  economics,  who  is  recognized 
to  be  the  best  informed  man  in  Australia  on  its  industrial  situa- 
tion, in  the  treatise,  "The  True  Basis  of  the  Living  Wage," 
says: 

No  sensible  man  desires  to  lower  the  standard  of  living  and  comfort 
in  this  country,  but  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  Australian  is  not  as 
frugal  as  his  brother  the  German,  Frenchman,  etc.  His  general  Half- 
holiday  and  other  holidays,  and  the  shopping  done  in  the  shortest  hours 
on  Friday  nights,  largely  enhance  the  cost  of  the  retail  article  and  in 
many  other  ways  he  has  made  a  rod  for  his  own  back,  though  it  may  be 
admitted  that  the  producer  passes  on  these  extra  costs  to  the  consumer, 
who  is  largely  the  wage-earner. 

In  summing  up  the  whole  matter,  if  our  experimental  legislation 
is  to  be  effective,  the  living  wage  must  be  so  fixed  (if  it  can  be)  that 
in  the  worst  times,  the  slow,  old  and  inefficient  worker  will  be  properly 
protected,  for  it  is  this  class,  and  this  only,  which  is  sweated.  The 
shrewd,  smart  worker  who  realizes  these  facts  is  the  man  who  would 
sooner  see  a  piece-work  living  wage  fixed,  on  a  more  businesslike  basis, 
than  the  absurd  minimum  wage  now  current  in  many  trades — a  price 
which  will  'last  under  all  conditions,  and  not  break  down  at  the  first  sign 
of  bad  weather,  knowing  that  he  himself  is  protected  by  his  skill  and 
smartness  in  earning  a  good,  profitable  wage. 

Governments  are  only  human,  and,  like  individuals,  inclined  to  be 
generous,  rather  than  just,  especially  in  good  times,  because  of  the  popu- 
larity attached  to  the  fixing  of  a  high  minimum  wage;  but,  remember, 
they  can  neither  produce  work  nor  maintain  artificial  wages,  which,  under 
bad  conditions,  must  break  down  of  their  own  weight. 

The  sooner  the  workers  grasp  this  fundamental  principle  the  better 
for  themselves  and  those  dependent  on  them. 

"You  cannot  make  bricks  without  straw"  is  an  old  saying,  and  you 
cannot  make  wages  without  capital,  nor  capital  without  labor.  The 
product  and  its  value  is  the  essence  of  the  wage  fund,  and  the  thorough, 
efficient  worker,  starting  on  an  equitable  piece  work  rate  in  a  country 
like  Australia,  must  before  long  have  saved  enough  to  be  a  boss  on  his 
own  account.  This  should  be  the  laudable  ambition  of  every  independent 
Australian  worker.  *  *  *  I  have  endeavored  to  show  that  the  living  wage 
(now  called  the  minimum)  is  not  one  that  can  be  fixed  by  "rule  of 
thumb,"  as  has  hitherto  been  the  case  in  New  Zealand  and  Australia,  be- 
cause it  defeats  the  very  object  of  the  "wage"— i.  e.,  the  ensuring  of  a 
decent  living  to  the  poorest  class  of  workers  for  all  time,  due  to  their 
being  incapable  of  producing  sufficient  to  justify  the  high  minimum  fixed 
by  Act  of  Parliament. 

The  right  to  work.  Adam  Smith  in  his  "Wealth  of  Nations," 
says,  "Is  the  property  which  every  man  has  in  his  own  labor,  the  original 
foundation  of  all  property.  *  *  *  The  patrimony  of  a  poor  man  lies  in  the 
strength  and  dexterity  of  his  hands,  and  to  hinder  him  from  employing 
his  strength  and  dexterity  in  what  manner  he  thinks  proper,  without  in- 
jury to  his  neighbor,  is  a  plain  violation  of  this  most  sacred  property." 
When  the  Wages  Boards  were  first  enacted  in  1894,  it  was  due  to 

90 


a  wave  of  altruistic  feeling  in  the  public  mind  that  many  women  and 
men  were  being  paid  a  "sweating  wage,  one  which  did  not  provide  for 
a  decent  existence."  The  period  was  one  of  great  distress,  due  to  previous 
years  of  over-gambling  by  the  people  of  Australia,  which  resulted  in  the 
break  of  the  land  boom,  banks,  and  many  other  businesses.  This  set  up 
conditions  which  have  occurred  before  and  will  occur  again.  *  *  *  From 
report  of  Royal  Commission  1898:  "Undoubtedly  when  master  butchers 
were  compelled  to  pay  455.  and  55s.  per  week  for  assistants  they  saw 
to  it  that  they  employed,  as  far  as  possible,  such  men  as  were  worth 
the  money.  Hence,  the  inferior  men  found  it  very  hard  to  get  regular 
employment  in  the  trade,  and  while  they  were  formerly  subjected  to 
sweating,  they  now,  in  many  cases,  were  deprived  of  work  altogether." 
We  thus  see  the  principle  of  providing  a  living  or  minimum  wage  had 
been  departed  from,  and  eventuated  in  the  Boards  becoming  a  meeting 
place  for  men  to  fight  for  the  highest  wage  possible,  irrespective  of  those 
workers  at  the  bottom  of  the  ladder,  the  very  class  which  the  altruism 
of  the  public  at  the  Wages  Boards'  inception  desired  to  protect.  * 
The  working  of  the  Act  is  best  summed  up  by  certain  questions  put  by  a 
late  chairman  of  some  of  the  Boards,  and  answered  by  himself.  *  *  * 
He  concludes  with:  "I  do  not  believe  that  any  form  of  legislation  can 
rigidly  fix  the  rates  of  wages  to  be  paid  to  all  classes  of  workmen  with- 
out doing  more  harm  than  good.  The  true  test  will  be  when  bad  times 
come,  then  they  must  go  down :  No  determination  here  can  affect  the 
workshops  of  Germany,  England  or  America  and  no  tribunal  can  fix 
wages  as  between  employer  and  employee." 

Dr.  Victor  Clark,  in  his  summing  up,  says,  referring  specially  to 
clothing  and  furniture  (especially  in  the  large  employment  of  Chinese)  : 
"Therefore,  the  law  has  not  eradicated  the  evils  it  was  devised  to  meet, 
but,  nevertheless,  it  appears  to  have  mitigated  them."  Again,  comparing 
this  20th  century  legislation  with  similar  legislation  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
he  says:  "The  latter  were  in  favor  of  property,  and  the  first  are  class 
legislation  in  favor  of  labor.  *  *  *  The  economic  effects  of  such  laws 
may  prove  to  be  the  same  in  both  instances.  *  *  *  They  may  be  suffi- 
ciently important  to  predestine  the  experimental  legislation  of  Australasia 
to  failure;  but  broader  knowledge  and  profounder  study  than  have  yet 
been  devoted  to  this  subject,  are  required  to  give  us  conclusions  of  value." 

The  above  statements  in  respect  to  Wages  Boards  by  the  Royal 
Commission,  by  the  chairman  of  a  Board,  and  by  the  expert  Labor  Com- 
missioner from  the  United  States  Government,  show  that  we  are  on 
dangerous  ground,  seeing  that  we  are  building  on  an  unsound  economic 
basis.  The  fact,  as  pointed  out  by  the  Royal  Commission,  that,  very  early 
in  its  inception,  the  Act  led  to  the  man  who  was  formerly  sweated,  in  many 
instances  being  "deprived  of  work  altogether,"  shows  that  such  legisla- 
tion, as  Adam  Smith  says,  "committed  a  plain  violation  of  the  worker's 
most  sacred  property — the  employment  of  his  strength  and  dexterity." 

This  is  the  weakness  of  the  Wages  Board.  Instead  of  standing  on 
firm  foundation,  the  fixing  of  an  actual  or  standardised  minimum  or 
living  wage  for  all  time,  subject  only  to  variations  caused  by  enhanced 
costs  of  living  when  the  same  could  be  brought  up  for  further  adjust- 
ment by  Parliament,  it  has  allowed  the  Boards  to  be  called  together 
every  three  years,  when  a  further  struggle  has  taken  place,  not  to  stop 
sweating,  but  how  to  obtain  as  high  a  wage  as  possible,  beyond  that  fixed 
three  years  before.  Thus,  losing  sight  of  "their  original  intent,  the  merely 
enforcing  of  a  living  wage/'  as  Dr.  Clark  so  wisely  says,  the  high  mini- 
mum has  had  a  tendency  to  level  down  the  best  worker  to  the  standard 
of  the  lowest  worker  earning  the  minimum,  thus  stultifying  the  best  that 
is  in  a  pushing,  clever  artisan,  and  making  him  purely  a  wage-earner; 
further,  at  the  same  time,  carrying  out  the  Darwinian  maxim,  "the  sur- 
vival of  the  fittest,"  by  crushing  out  the  less  efficient  worker  in  an  over- 
'  crowded  market  and  leaving,  when  times  are  bad,  "the  sweater"  to  work 

91 


his  unholy  trade.  The  great  nations  of  the  earth,  for  over  a  thousand 
years,  have  studied  this  subject  and  experimented.  They  have  done  great 
work  in  regard  to  the  employment  of  children  and  women,  but  have 
fought  rightly  shy  "at  the  fixing  of  wages,"  knowing  the  difficulties  that 
always  will  arise  in  trying  to  equalise  all  men's  labor.  In  conclusion, 
I  think  we  may  all  agree  that  during  the  past  prolific  years  in  Australia, 
the  Wages  Boards,  in  comparison  with  some  other  legislative  experiments 
we  know  of,  have  been  fairly  successful ;  but  the  true  test  has  yet  to 
come,  when  (as  now  looks  possible)  lean  years  come,  money  and  work 
become  scarce,  as  to  whether  the  minimum  now  existing  can  be  main- 
tained, or  whether  it  will  fall  like  a  "house  of  cards"  because  it  is 
founded  on  unsound  economic  conditions.  If  so,  will  this  cause  serious 
labor  trouble?  For  man  is  only  human,  not  minding  how  much  you 
raise  his  wages  or  shorten  his  hours,  but  strongly  objecting  to  the  oppo- 
site course  being  pursued.  Will  the  Government  be  then  prepared  to 
acknowledge,  as  Dr.  Clark  cleverly  puts  it,  "The  responsibility  of  the 
State  for  a  living  wage  logically  leads  to  the  responsibility  of  the  State 
for  employment  at  that  wage,"  to  ensure  the  high  minimum  and  the 
certainty  of  employment? 

Thus,  from  the  foregoing  discussion  of  the  subject  of  a 
legalized  minimum  wage,  there  seems  to  be  an  abundance  of 
argument  that  the  Government  should  keep  its  hands  off  this 
complex  and  purely  economic  question,  and  that  any  attempt  at 
Governmental  regulation  of  wages  is  a  usurpation  of  Govern- 
mental function  which  can  only  result  in  disaster. 

Compulsory  Arbitration. 

Reference  has  been  made  to  compulsory  arbitration  laws, 
but  as  this  subject  forms  an  important  factor  in  the  labor  legis- 
lation of  Australia  and  New  Zealand  a  more  explanatory  and 
detailed  reference  to  the  same  should  be  given,  and  to  that  end, 
and  by  permission  of  the  author,  Mr.  Walpole,  hereinbefore 
referred  to  and  quoted,  we  reproduce  an  article  covering  the  sub- 
ject completely.  This  article  so  thoroughly  bears  out  and  em- 
phasizes the  information  which  we  gathered  from  our  various 
investigations,  that  we  feel  it  to  be  unnecessary  to  burden  this 
report  with  further  comment  in  the  premises,  except  to  say,  the 
article  itself  is  evidence  of  its  writer's  ability  to  handle  the  sub- 
ject. It  follows: 

Compulsory  arbitration  may  be  said  to  be  the  immediate  effect  of 
the  great  maritime  strike  of  1891,  which,  for  the  time  being,  held  up 
Australia  and  New  Zealand.  The  men  were  ultimately  defeated,  but  all 
parties — employers,  employees,  and  the  public — demanded  some  change 
in  the  methods  of  fighting  out  industrial  disputes  in  the  future. 

New  Zealand  was  the  first  to  give  voice  to  this  view,  and  the  Hon. 
T.  McGregor,  M.  L.  C.  together  with  the  Hon.  W.  P.  Reeves,  drew  up  a 
Bill  in  1894  for  conciliation  and  compulsory  arbitration.  Both  of  these 
gentlemen  honestly  believed  they  had  found  the  way  out  of  all  industrial 
difficulties,  and  peace  would  in  future  reign  supreme;  but,  unfortunately, 
when  the  Bill  became  an  Act,  and  its  administration  was  put  into  force, 
one  of  its  fathers — Hon.  J.  McGregor  (a  leading  New  Zealand  barrister) 

92 


— was  driven  by  candor  to  admit  that  the  system,  when  worked  out,  was 
not  a  success,  and  with  a  view  to  remedying  the  wrong  he  had  done, 
he  wrote  a  most  trenchant  pamphlet,  dealing  fully  with  the  Act,  in  which 
he  says:  "The  system  is  not  in  any  sense  what  it  was  intended  to  be — 
a  means  of  settling  industrial  disputes  and  strikes  by  conciliation  and 
arbitration,  but  it  is  rather  a  system  for  the  regulation  of  the  industries 
of  the  Colony  by  means  of  ordinances,  misnamed  awards,  issued  by  a 
court  of  law."  In  spite  of  this  criticism,  the  Act,  though  subject  to 
numerous  amendments,  continues  in  operation.  One  of  the  most  im- 
portant amendments  was  the  abandonment  of  conciliation  and  going 
straight  to  the  Compulsory  Arbitration  Court. 

Its  administration  encouraged  a  large  number  of  walking  delegates 
in  the  Colony  to  go  from  workshop  to  workshop  instigating  disputes  to 
be  brought  before  the  Court,  and  later  appearing  before  the  Court  as 
special  advocates  in  such  disputes. 

In  1905  the  late  Premier  (Mr.  R.  Seddon),  recognising  that  there 
was  no  finality  in  the  demands  of  the  workers  for  more  wages  every 
time  agreements  expired,  said:  "It  was  the  duty  of  the  Government  to 
hold  the  balance  fairly  between  employers  and  workers.  He  realised 
that,  in  the  face  of  the  present  keen  competition,  no  further  burden 
should  be  placed  on  the  industries.  He  was  almost  in  dread  of  what  was 
going  to  happen  to  New  Zealand  when  the  Panama  Canal  was  com- 
pleted, and  New  Zealand  brought  face  to  face  with  the  old  world  compe 
tition"  In  this  statement  the  Premier  wisely  saw  the  economic  fallacy 
of  believing  that  wages  can  be  adjusted  by  legislation  in  face  of  the 
world's  competition  by  countries  who  have  no  such  restrictions.  This  is 
clearly  shown  by  the  increase  in  imports  in  two  of  New  Zealand's  pro- 
tected industries — apparel  and  slops  and  boots — before  and  after  the 
Arbitration  Act  came  into  force: 

IMPORTS. 
1894  1908  Increase 

Apparel  and  Slops £301,774  £775,559  Over  100  per  cent. 

Boots     139,455  244,443  Over    50  per  cent. 

These  two  industries,  if  any,  should  be  expected  to  hold  their  own 
in  a  protected  country,  but,  as  shown  in  a  previous  article,  due  to  the 
product  of  the  outside  worker  being  greater,  his  hours  longer,  and  no 
artificial  legislation,  the  wall  of  protection  was  overcome,  and  the  con- 
sumer provided  with  the  imported  article  at  a  satisfactory  price. 

New  Zealand,  to  whom  it  has  been  credited,  as  a  land  without 
strikes,  is  not  a  manufacturing  country  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word.  *  *  * 
This  would,  to  some  extent,  account  for  there  being  fewer  strikes  if 
viewed  in  comparison  with  the  great  European  and  American  industrial 
centres;  though,  if  space  would  allow,  the  writer  could  furnish  details 
of  many  strikes  that  have  taken  place  since  the  Act  came  into  force, 
in  such  industries  as  coal,  slaughtermen,  iron  founders,  miners,  etc.,  etc. 

New  Zealand  has  been  well  called  the  paradise  of  the  workman, 
though  its  wonderful  success  cannot  be  credited  to  the  soothing  effect 
of  compulsory  arbitration,  but  due  to  the  Creator  having  given  the  New 
Zealander  one  of  the  most  splendid  climates  and  prolific  soils  in  the 
world.  This  is  revealed  in  the  exports  for  1909  (practically  all  primary), 
amounting  to  £21,290,436 — not  bad  for  a  population  of  some  900,000. 
This  wonderful  result  is  sufficient  reason  as  to  why  the  consumer  is 
enabled  to  pay  the  extra  cost  of  all  he  wears  and  eats  as  passed  on  by 
the  employer,  and,  though  the  late  Prime  Minister  (Hon.  R.  Seddon) 
said  that,  "Despite  increased  wages,  the  workers  found  themselves  no 
better  off  than  formerly,  on  account  of  the  increased  cost  of  living," 
the  Act  still  remains  in  force,  like  the  Wages  Boards  and  other  experi- 
mental systems  for  framing  wages.  Specially  good  times  allow  the  merry 

93 


game  to  go  on.  "You  get  more  wages ;  you  pay  more  for  what  you  get." 
Of  course,  the  day  of  reckoning  must  come,  and  then  the  New  Zealand 
Government  will  have  to  prove  whether  the  high  minimum  fixed  by  the 
Court  can  be  maintained,  and  if  not,  it  must  face  the  result  of  falling 
wages  and  consequent  industrial  strife. 

The  history  of  compulsory  arbitration  in  Australia  commences  in 
1896,  when  Commissioner  Russell,  appointed  by  Mr.  Kingston,  the 
Premier  of  South  Australia,  became  first  President  of  the  Arbitration 
Court  of  South  Australia,  but  this  gentleman  had  special  powers  to 
settle  matters  voluntarily  if  he  liked,  and  in  1902  the  shearers'  strike 
settlement  was  effected  voluntarily  by  him,  and  gave  such  satisfaction  to 
both  parties  as  to  encourage  the  Commissioner  to  act  in  a  voluntary 
capacity  in  other  cases,  the  consequence  being  that  in  seven  years  there 
were  only  seven  disputes ;  whereas  in  New  Zealand,  with  its  paraphernalia 
of  a  Judiciary  Court,  and  due  to  the  encouragement  the  Act  afforded  to 
busybodies  to  bring  disputes  before  the  Court,  there  were  400  disputes  in 
five  years. 

New  South  Wales  was  the  next  State  to  take  up  compulsory  arbi- 
tration, and  at  its  inception  determined  to  leave  out  conciliation.  During 
its  existence  it  managed  to  create  more  turmoil  perhaps  than  any-  Act 
placed  on  any  Statute  Book  in  the  world.  Shortly  after  it  had  come  into 
force  a  big  shearers'  strike  took  place,  and  the  country,  believing  that  it 
had  now  the  means  of  settling  disputes  by  compulsion,  called  upon  the 
Court  to  do  its  duty.  Parliament  was  also  asked  why  the  Court  delayed 
in  settling  this  dispute,  and  the  reply  given  by  Mr.  Wise,  the  father  of 
the  Act,  was  casuistical  in  the  extreme.  He  said:  "The  Act  defines  a 
strike  as  a  cessation  of  work  by  a  body  of  employees  acting  in  com- 
bination. Now  the  shearers  have  not  ceased  to  work,  but  have  declined 
to  begin  work,  and  that  is  a  very  different  thing";  but  what  Mr.  Wise 
failed  to  state  was  that,  though  it  was  true  these  men  had  refused  to  com- 
mence work,  which  was  entirely  their  business,  they  had  refused  to 
allow  anyone  else  to  work  in  their  place,  which  was  quite  another  thing. 

This  want  of  action  on  the  part  of  the  Government  and  the  Court 
in  the  first  great  strike  since  the  inception  of  the  Act  was  the  commence- 
ment of  its  failure,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  gradually  broke  down  the  Act. 
Its  real  weakness  was  the  impossibility  of  the  Court  to  enforce  its  de- 
cisions on  the  thousands  of  shearers  on  strike.  The  Court  could  not 
fine  them,  because  the  Government  knew  it  would  not  be  paid,  and, 
failing  this,  the  only  recourse  was  to  put  them  in  gaol,  which,  as  one 
of  the  men  said,  "there  were  not  enough  gaols  to  hold  them,"  and  sec- 
ondly, if  they  could  have  done  so,  no  Ministry  would  have  lived  24  hours. 

The  New  South  Wales  Act  was  perhaps  the  most  drastic  of  all  the 
State  Acts.  It  not  only  gave  power  to  the  Court  to  deal  with  wages  and 
hours  in  every  employment,  but  the  modes,  terms  and  conditions  of  em- 
ployment, the  dismissal  of  or  refusal  to  employ  any  particular  person  or 
class  of  persons,  or  any  established  custom  or  usage  of  any  industry, 
either  generally  or  in  any  particular  locality.  In  the  words  of  Mr.  Ash- 
ton  (then  Minister  of  Lands),  the  Act  purposed  giving  a  Supreme 
Court  judge  "a  power  beneficent  or  ill,  so  great  that  no  Parliament  that 
ever  existed  would  dare  to  exercise  it.  It  meant,"  he  continued,  "that 
a  Supreme  Court  judge  will  hold  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand  the  industrial 
development  of  this  country." 

The  judge  of  the  Court  was  allowed  two  assessors  or  lay  members 
of  the  Court,  because,  as  Mr.  Ashton  said,  "he  did  not  think  any  Su- 
preme Court  judge  had  the  requisite  amount  of  wisdom  to  enable  him 
to  perform  that  duty  without  committing  very  serious  errors."  In  this 
he  showed  his  fore-knowledge,  because  subsequently  many  judges,  even 
with  lay  representatives,  tried  their  hands  at  the  game,  and,  in  en- 
deavouring to  carry  out  the  extreme  powers  vested  in  them,  caused 
action  after  action  to  be  brought  before  the  Full  Court  of  the  State,  and 

94 


in  some  cases  before  the  High  Court  of  the  Commonwealth,  in  which 
their  judgments,  fortunately  for  the  people  of  New  South  Wales,  were 
nullified. 

Some  of  the  infringements  on  the  rights  of  the  individual  were 
shown  in  the  preference  to  unionists,  who  at  that  time  did  not  represent 
a  decent  minority  of  the  workers  in  the  State.  We  find  in  the  Arbitra- 
tion Court  Report,  1903,  the  following :  "In  the  undertakers'  award,  an 
employer,  in  case  of  an  emergency,  is  not  justified  in  engaging  a  non- 
unionist  without  applying  to  the  secretary  of  the  employees'  union  to 
ascertain  whether  any  competent  unionist  is  available."  In  the  saddle 
and  harness  makers'  award,  the  following  clause  is  inserted :  "Should 
any  dispute  arise  out  of  this  award,  it  shall,  if  practicable,  be  settled  by 
the  employer  and  the  union  secretary,  failing  which  it  shall  be  referred 
to  the  Registrar  for  decision."  Yet  another  glaring  instance  of  might 
over  right  being  exercised  by  the  Court  when  it  laid  down  the  principle 
that,  in  discharging  hands,  the  employer  must  do  so  on  the  following 
conditions,  "the  last  to  come,  the  first  to  go." 

These  instances  show  some  of  the  results  of  the  desire  for  legis- 
lative industrial  peace  in  New  South  Wales. 

It  is  well  summed  up  in  Dr.  Victor  Clark's  (Labor  Commissioner 
for  the  Government  of  the  United  States)  remarks  re  the  New  Zealand 
Court.  He  says :  "The  practical  effect  of  the  law  has  been  to  establish 
a  tribunal  for  making  collective  .bargains.  The  name  Court  is  mislead- 
ing. *  *  *  In  the  first  place  the  Arbitration  Court  is  a  representative, 
not  an  impartial  and  non-partisan  body.  *  *  *  It  does  not  grant  trial  by 
jury,  nor  are  its  decisions  reviewed  by  any  other  tribunal.  All  these 
facts  are  faults  from  the  statesman's  point  of  view,  and  they  do  violence 
to  the  general  experience  of  mankind,  as  crystallised  in  political  opinions. 
To  unite  legislation  and  judicial  functions  in  a  single  body,  irresponsible 
to  any  higher  power  than  the  popular  legislature,  must  appear  to  Ameri- 
cans, with  their  constitutional  principles  and  precedents  in  view,  a  dan- 
gerous retrogression  to  more  primitive  conditions  of  law."  Anyone  who 
has  studied  the  working  of  compulsory  arbitration  in  Australia  and 
New  Zealand,  whether  State  or  Commonwealth,  must  agree  with  the 
above  thoughtful  statement  furnished  by  an  impartial  and  expert  judge. 

As  the  powers  of  the  Act  became  better  known,  and  the  unions 
found  the  true  value  of  the  privileges  granted  to  them  by  law,  the 
Wharf  Labourers'  Union,  by  closing  their  books,  refused  admission  to 
any  more  applicants  in  their  union,  thus  limiting  both  quantity  and 
quality. 

The  Act  also  enabled  the  unions  to  become  a  powerful  factor  in 
political  life.  This  was  shown  in  some  of  the  rules  of  the  Australian 
Workers'  Union  in  their  dispute  with  the  Machine  Shearers'  Union  re 
registration  under  the  Court,  one  of  the  rules  (No.  57)  being:  "Any 
member  of  the  union  voting  or  working  against  the  selected  candidate 
shall  be  fined  the  sum  of  £3." 

These  tyrannical  powers  given  to  the  unions  by  the  Act,  and  the 
adverse  decisions  in  both  the  High  and  Full  Courts  in  respect  to  the 
overriding  of  common  law  rights,  brought  matters  to  a  crisis,  and 
Mr.  Justice  Darley,  the  highest  authority  in  the  State  of  New  South 
Wales,  made  the  following  declaration  re  the  Act:  "It  is  beyond  ques- 
tion that  the  Arbitration  Act  as  in  force  in  this  State  is  an  Act  which 
is  derogation  of  the  common  law.  It  does  encroach  upon  the  liberty  of 
the  subject  as  regards  persons  and  property.  It  creates  new  crimes 
unknown  to  common  law  or  contained  in  any  previous  statute.  It  inter- 
feres with  the  liberty  of  action  of  both  employer  and  employee.  *  *  * 
Further,  I  think  the  Act  is  productive  of  the  most  alarming  and  deplor- 
able amount  of  litigation  with  its  concomitant  ill-feeling  and  ill-will 
between  employers  and  employees,  who  are  by  this  Act  forced  into 
hostile  camps.  I  believe  the  object  of  the  legislature  in  passing  this 

95 


Act  was  to  promote  peace  and  goodwill  between  employers  and  em- 
ployees, but  I  fear  it  has  not  done  so."  Subsequently  Mr.  Justice  Hey- 
don,  President  of  the  Court,  referring  to  the  numerous  adverse  de- 
cisions given  against  the  Court,  said:  "It  had  been  riddled,  shelled, 
broken  fore  and  aft,  and  reduced  to  a  sinking  hulk."  In  other  words, 
the  regular  courts  had  saved  the  people  from  a  course  of  tyrannical 
rule  by  this  ''intruder"  equaled  only  by  that  of  the  Neros  of  old. 

Public  opinion  swung  round,  and  called  for  Wages  Boards,  with 
the  result  that  the  Act  was  so  amended  as  to  make  the  once-powerful 
Court  a  Court  of  Appeal.  Fortunately,  out  of  evil  came  good.  The 
other  States  with  such  examples  as  New  Zealand  and  New  South  Wales, 
decided  they  would  have"  none  of  it,  and  Wages  Boards,  except  in 
Westralia  (where  an  Arbitration  Court  had  already  been  created), 
became  the  vogue  in  all  the  States.  Compulsory  arbitration  for  the 
settlement  of  strikes  and  industrial  peace  had  been  found  wanting. 

COMMONWEALTH   ARBITRATION  ACT. 

One  would  have  thought  with  such  glaring  examples  before  them 
(for  these  Acts  were  in  full  vogue  at  the  time),  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment, and  that  a  so-called  Liberal  one,  would  have  avoided  creating  such 
a  Court  to  look  after  Commonwealth  industrial  affairs,  especially  when 
the  power  to  deal  with  industrial  conditions  had  only  been  agreed  to 
in  the  last  Federal  Convention  by  a  small  majority,  with  the  under- 
standing that  such  power  would  be  provided  only  to  meet  a  similar  case 
to  that  of  the  great  maritime  strike. 

Section  51,  when  inserted  in  the  Constitution  for  the  prevention  of 
disputes  extending  beyond  one  State,  was  at  the  time  looked  upon  as  a 
harmless  preventive,  but  when  the  Bill  was  brought  before  the  House 
in  1904,  it  was  found  to  be  similar  in  many  respects  to  the  Acts  of 
New  South  Wales  and  New  Zealand  in  all  its  autocratic  powers,  and 
worse  in  one  particular,  that  it  had  no  lay  representatives,  but  left  every- 
thing ^to  the  power  of  one  man,  in  spite  of  the  statement  made  by 
Mr.  Ashton  already  quoted,  that  "He  did  not  believe  any  Supreme  Court 
judge  had  the  requisite  wisdom  to  perform  that  duty  without  committing 
very  serious  errors." 

The  Act  has  had  a  similar  effect  upon  the  body  politic  to  the  New 
South  Wales  Act,  and  the  words  of  Mr.  justice  Darling  apply  equally 
as  apt  to  the  Commonwealth  Court,  especially  in  the  last  paragraph: 
"The  Act  is  productive  of  the  most  alarming  and  deplorable  amount  of 
litigation  *  *  *  and  its  object  was  to  promote  peace  and  goodwill  be- 
tween employers  and  employees,  but  I  fear  it  has  not  done  so." 

Thousands  of  pounds  have  been  spent  by  both  employers  and  em- 
ployees in  the  courts  of  law  in  "riddling"  and  "shelling"  this  iniquitous 
Act.  Eight  years  have  been  spent  in  hearing  disputes  by  the  Court, 
whose  decisions  have  in  many  cases  been  thrown  out  by  the  High  Court. 
Amendment  after  amendment  have  been  made  in  the  Act,  with  a  view 
of  giving  the  Court  greater  and  greater  powers  than  even  those  men- 
tioned by  Mr.  Ashton  at  the  inception  of  the  New  South  Wales  Act, 
and  still  no  one  is  satisfied.  Industrial  peace  is  no  nearer,  and  industrial 
war  is  quite  as  frequent  as  before  its  passage  as  an  Act.  Strikes  take 
place  all  over  the  Commonwealth,  and  the  leaders  of  the  unions  regis- 
tered under  the  Court  point-blank  say:  "We  reserve  the  right  to  strike. 
*  *  *  A  strike  was  the  best  weapon  the  workers  had  at  the  present  time." 
Agreements  made  are  broken  and  the  leaders  recommend  the  men  "that 
unions  should  not  bind  themselves  to  their  employers,"  and  if  an  agree- 
ment arrived  at  by  both  parties  was  not  signed  at  the  moment  of  a 
contemplated  strike,  like  in  the  case  of  the  waterside  workers  and  the 
shipping  companies,  in  which  a  penalty  of  £1,000  was  inserted  for  strik- 
ing, the  men  were  encouraged  "in  waiving  it  on  one  side."  Even  in  the 
case  of  the  great  Brisbane  strike,  when  42  unions,  who  had  nothing 

96 


whatever  to  do  with  the  original  dispute,  went  out  in  sympathy,  one  of 
which  was  the  "Boot  Employees'  Union,"  registered  under  the  Arbitra- 
tion Court,  and  working  under  an  agreement  of  that  Court. 

It  is  true  this  Court  is  very  popular  at  the  present  moment  with 
employees,  and  registrations  of  unions  are  taking  place  every  day;  but  at 
the  rate  it  is  moving  many  of  those  anxiously  awaiting  at  the  door  to 
have  their  cases  heard  are  likely  to  be  grey-headed  before  admittance. 

COMPULSORY  ARBITRATION. 

Compulsory  arbitration,  as  an  experiment  in  both  Australia  and 
New  Zealand,  if  put  on  the  stage,  as  "Pinafore,"  would  prove  a  most 
successful,  laughable  farce,  if  it  was  not  so  serious  to  the  Australian 
people.  It  has  set  up  war  between  the  classes;  it  has  set  up  trouble 
between  the  States  and  the  Commonwealth,  having  virtually  offered  a 
premium  to  the  union  to  stir  up  troubles  in  those  trades  under  Wages 
Boards,  due  to  a  late  decision  of  the  High  Court — that  the  Arbitration 
Court  cannot  make  an  award  inconsistent  with  the  determination  of  a 
Wages  Board — that  is  to  say,  it  cannot  fix  wages  lower  than  those  fixed 
by  the  Board,  but  can,  if  the  employees  appeal  to  the  Court,  increase  the 
same,  the  men  well  knowing  if  they  fail  they  still  must  get  the  wage 
fixed  by  the  Board.  Could  anything  be  more  one-sided?  The  Act  has 
truly  become  the  Storm  Centre  in  William  street,  as  so-called  by  the 
Hon.  W.  H.  Irvine,  M.  H.  R. 

Much  more  could  be  written  re  the  last  amended  Acts  still  giving 
more  powers  to  the  Court  but  the  glaring  examples  given  in  this 
lengthy  paper  must  suffice.  *  *  * 

The  experience  given  above  by  the  chief  actors  in  connection  with 
the  administration  of  this  Act  in  New  Zealand  and  Australia  would  in 
any  other  country  have  been  sufficient  to  have  stopped  the  same  being 
put  on  the  Commonwealth  Statute  Book,  especially  when  the  States 
have  provided  legislation  like  Wages  Boards,  practically  giving  the 
workers  plentiful  protection  in  wages,  hours  and  conditions.  Compulsory 
arbitration  is  a  drastic  failure.  Why  not  admit  it? 

Apprenticeship. 

(See  former  reference) 

In  addition  to  what  has  already  been  said  with  respect  to 
the  matter  of  apprentices,  we  call  attention  to  this  vital  phase  of 
the  industrial  problem  and  emphasize  the  fact  that  limitation 
of  the  number  of  apprentices  which  may  be  employed  to  a  given 
number  of  artisans  is  fixed  by  the  Wages  Boards.  Therefore, 
the  opportunities  for  the  youth  of  the  country  to  acquire  trades 
and  thereby  increase  the  industrial  efficiency  of  the  nation  are 
limited  by  law;  which,  in  reality  and  practical  operation  is,  in 
the  last  analysis,  regulation  by  the  labor  unions.  Moreover,  the 
prevailing  high  rate  of  wages  fixed  for  common  labor  has  a  de- 
terrent effect  on  the  desire  of  young  men  to  become  skilled  me- 
chanics, but  is  an  incentive  to  seek  employment  where  remunera- 
tion is  high  and  industrial  education  altogether  nil. 

Australia  and  New  Zealand  both  have  built  high  protection 
walls  to  protect  their  manufacturing  industries  against  outside 
competition;  so,  too,  they  have  built  equally  high  walls  to  keep 
out  internal  development  of  their  own  industries  by  restricting 

97 


the  number  of  those  who  otherwise  would  become  artisans  and 
upon  whom  the  future  industrial  development  of  the  country 
must,  necessarily,  largely  depend.  The  policy,  to  a  thoughtful 
man,  aside  from  its  repugnance,  is  much  "like  a  man  trying  to 
lift  himself  over  a  fence  by  pulling  upon  his  boot  straps." 

The  matter  of  constantly  infusing  new  blood  into  the  indus- 
trial bodies  of  these  countries  is  of  such  vital  importance  to  their 
growth  and  development  that,  if  their  present  Governmental 
policy  of  restriction  of  and  discouragement  to  apprentices  is 
continued,  they  are  sure  to  experience  a  gradual  scarcity  of 
skilled  mechanics,  and  it  will  not  be  long  before  they  reach  a 
condition  of  industrial  dry  rot. 

But  little  attention  has  heretofore  been  given  to  technical 
training  in  the  schools,  although  some  interest  in  that  direction 
is  just  now  being  displayed.  But  of  what  little  avail  can  be 
any  effort  to  teach  the  apprentice  the  theoretical  side  of  the  trade 
he  is  seeking  to  learn  when  the  very  root  of  the  proposition  is 
stunted  by  the  restrictive  policy  which  the  Government  itself 
places  upon  its  freedom  and  growth. 

What's  Wrong  with  Unionism  ? 

During  our  stay  at  Melbourne,  it  was  our  privilege  to  have 
a  number  of  interviews  with  Mr.  J.  T.  Packer,  Secretary  of 
the  Liberal  Workers'  League,  a  political  organization  composed 
of  independent  workers  who  are  not  in  sympathy  with  the  mili- 
tant socialistic  policy  of  the  unions  which  dominate  labor  con- 
ditions in  Australia,  and  whom  an  effort  is  being  made  to  band 
together  in  a  political  organization  to  counteract  the  evil  influ- 
ence of  that  radical  element  of  the  Labor  Party  known  as  "Red 
Feds." 

We  found  Mr.  Packer  to  be  a  man  of  wide  experience  in 
industrial  matters,  a  conscientious  and  intelligent  representative 
of  the  independent  class  of  Australian  workers,  with  whom  it 
was  a  pleasure  to  converse  and  to  whom  we  are  indebted  for 
much  valuable  information  concerning  the  handicaps  to  the 
"right  to  life,  liberty  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness"  which  the 
independent  worker  has  to  endure  in  Australia.  Mr.  Packer 
is  a  union  man  and  a  firm  believer  in  unionism  when  confined  to 
its  proper  and  legitimate  purposes  and  when  founded  on  efficiency 
and  not  deficiency.  He  is  a  fair  representative  of  the  average 
Australian  worker,  who,  our  investigations  lead  us  to  believe, 
is  intelligent,  frugal  and  conscientious,  measuring  up  with  the 
average  of  those  of  any  other  country,  and  who  sees  and  regrets 
the  evils  of  "the  system"  as  much  as  anybody. 


But,  although  in  the  majority,  he  is  powerless  to  change 
them,  because  he  is  not  organized  and  "the  system"  is.  Mr.  Packer 
was  "read  out"  of  his  union  because  of  his  expressions  of  pro- 
test against  some  of  the  many  arbitrary  and  unjust  practices  of 
unionism  as  it  is  conducted.  He  is  the  author  of  a  book  of  200 
pages,  entitled  "What's  Wrong  WTith  Unionism?"  This  report 
would  hardly  be  complete  were  we  to  fail  to  quote  from  it  some 
sentiments  expressive  of  a  working  man's  views  on  the  kind  of 
unionism  that  is  holding  Australia  in  shackles.  We  shall,  there- 
fore, take  the  liberty  to  quote  somewhat  at  length  from  the  book, 
because  its  author  is  a  man  who  knows  his  subject  and  speaks 
of  things  as  they  are  and  as  we  found  them.  And  also,  because 
our  mission  was  to  make  a  thorough  investigation  of  and  report 
in  detail  the  true  and  actual  industrial  conditions  in  Australasia, 
which  having  found  to  be  as  herein  reported,  we  feel,  as  before 
intimated,  that  a  liberal  share  of  the  evidence  upon  which  our  con- 
clusions are  based  should  be  presented  in  our  report. 

FROM   "WHAT'S  WRONG  WITH  UNIONISM?" 

(PAGE  12) 

As  an  Australian  worker — a  strong  believer  in  unionism,  as  a 
former  executive  committeeman  of  a  Victorian  union,  and  a  delegate 
on  the  Trades  Hall  Council,  my  objective  in  penning  these  pages  is 
solely  to  place  in  cold  print,  concisely  as  possible,  just  the  danger  zones 
and  hidden  snares  that  are  today  undermining  the  great  superstructure 
of  Australian  unionism,  and  which,  if  unheeded,  will,  as  sure  as  night 
follows  day,  bring  ruin  to  the  most  wonderful  industrial  organization 
the  world  has  yet  seen.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  16) 

The  idea  is  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  present  day  leaders,  that 
unionism  cannot  progress  unless  there  is  discord  and  industrial  warfare. 
The  Labor  Daily  at  Ballarat,  of  January  30,  1913:  "The  union  that 
can't  or  won't  keep  on  fighting  should  disband."  This  policy  is  still 
further  emphasized  by  Senator  Rae,  a  representative  of  the  Australian 
Workers'  Union  in  the  Federal  Parliament,  who  is  reported  in  "Handard" 
to  have  stated:  "I  hold  that  whether  it  is  any  big  political  issue,  or  any 
industrial  issue,  force  still  holds  sway,  and  that  striking  produces  better 
results  than  any  other  method  yet  found  out." 

This  class  of  legislator,  sent  to  sit  in  our  Parliamentary  Halls  to 
introduce  legislation  for  the  peaceful  settlement  of  industrial  disputes, 
states  clearly  that,  as  far  as  the  school  of  thought  he  belongs  to  is  con- 
cerned, it  has  no  time  for  peace  between  man  and  man.  "The  right  to 
strike  is  the  only  weapon  the  workingman  has,-  and  he  will  not  give  it  up," 
states  the  Hon.  James  Page,  another  prominent  member  of  the  A.  W.  U.f 
sitting  as  a  Parliamentary  representative  in  our  Federal  Parliament. 
Then  again,  the  official  organ  of  Australian  unionism,  the  Sydney 
Worker,  in  its  issue  of  January  9,  1913,  stated :  "Don't  be  surprised  if 
1913  presents  us  with  some  of  the  greatest  strikes  on  record.  Labor 
must  not  only  be  prepared  to  strike,  but  to  back  up  the  strike  with  armed 
force — go  in  for  civil  war,  in  fact." 

Again,  the  New  South  Wales  Trades  Union  Congress  of  1912  had 
a  serious  resolution  to  consider,  which  was  only  negatived  by  seven  votes, 

99 


which  read  that,  "We  demand  the  repeal  of  all  Industrial  Legislation  that 
takes  away  the  right  of  contention  and  the  right  to  strike." 

The  Sower,  the  monthly  organ  published  through  the  union 
office  of  the  Melbourne  Trades  Hall,  in  January's  issue,  1913,  had  an 
article  which  read:  "What  an  army  of  workers  if  well  organised  on 
right  lines  and  trained  on  the  objects  of  more  effective  methods  can 
accomplish  is  illustrated  in  the  Irritation  Strike.  At  a  given  hour  on  a 
fixed  date  all  workers  would  suspend  work  suddenly;  stay  out  a  week, 
and  then  return  to  their  posts  after  a  week  or  ten  days'  suspension, 
acting  as  if  nothing  had  happened.  The  manufacturers,  thinking  the 
trouble  had  blown  over,  would  start  to  run  the  factories  full  blast,  when, 
at  a  moment's  notice,  every  man  would  walk  out  again,  only  to  repeat 
these  methods  over  and  over  again,  until  the  manufacturers  were  de- 
moralized and  the  factories  crippled.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  21) 

Each  State,  as  well  as  the  Commonwealth  itself,  has  laws  for  the 
peaceful  adjustment  of  wages  and  conditions  of  labor.  The  need  for  the 
expensive  strike  levies  has  been  completely  done  away  with  by  the 
avenues  thus  opened  up  for  the  legal  adjustment  of  industrial  differences. 
Yet,  is  it  any  wonder,  when  we  consider  the  statements  as  expressed 
earlier  in  this  chapter  by  modern  trade  union  leaders,  that  we  find  that 
during  the  three  years  running  from  May  I,  1910,  to  April  30,  1913, 
no  fewer  than  349  strikes  occurred  in  the  Commonwealth,  making  an 
average  of  over  115  for  the  12  months?  *  *  * 

This  is  a  startling  position,  mysterious  as  it  may  seem  to  those 
who  are  in  close  touch  with  modern  trade  unionism.  *  *  * 

Those  trade  unionists  who  some  years  back  saw  in  political  action 
a  panacea  whereby  all  their  industrial  ills  could  be  righted,  have  experi- 
enced a  rude  shock  to  their  theories.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  22) 

The  hatred  between  the  worker  unorganized  and  the  worker  or- 
ganized is  the  great  fight  now  waging  in  democratic  Australia.  The 
members  of  organized  trade  unions  may  still  hate  the  capitalists,  but 
organized  labor's  hatred  toward  unorganized  labor  burns  like  a  flame, 
eats  like  nitric  acid  and  is  malignant  beyond  all  description.  *  * 

To  refuse  a  man  the  right  to  work,  and  hound  him  from  job  to 
job  on  account  of  his  non-membership  in  a  socialistic  union  is  now 
called  a  principle.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  23) 

This  policy  of  compelling  a  man  to  loaf  on  the  job  is  now,  in  the 
words  of  the  unionistic  leaders,  the  principle  at  stake.  *  *  *  It  can  safely 
be  stated  that  about  50  per  cent,  of  these  men  inside  organized  labor's 
ranks  today  are  men  who  have  been  forced  in  the  interest  of  peace  and 
their  homes  to  pay  into  the  union  coffers.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  24) 

The  writer  recently  spoke  to  a  man,  an  engineer  working  in  a 
large  engineering  establishment,  whose  views  had  always  been  expressed 
in  a  moderate  and  reasonable  manner,  and  when  asked  how  it  was  that 
he  was  willing  to  condone  the  revolutionary  and  immoral  acts  of  modern 
trade  unionism  in  its  boycotting  and  coercive  methods,  stated,  what  was 
he  to  do,  he  was  building  up  a  home,  had  a  wife  and  five  children,  to 
keep.  His  house  he  was  buying  on  time  payment,  and  if  he  refused  to 
pay  his  money  into  the  union,  or  attempted  to  utter  his  sentiments  in 
opposition  to  that  of  the  union  executive,  his  life  would  at  once  be  made 
so  unpleasant  in  the  workshop  that  he  would  be  compelled  to  give  up 
his  position.  "So,"  he  stated,  "I  am  compelled  to  sink  conscience,  and 
find  it  cheap  peace  at  6d.  a  week."  *  *  * 

100 


(PAGE  26) 

The  long  suffering  public,  bending  under  such  taxation,  have,  in  the 
light  of  recent  and  current  events,  been  wondering  in  amazement  at 
the  failure  of  the  mass  of  political  industrial  machinery  upon  our  State 
and  Commonwealth  Statute  Books,  enacted  at  the  cost  of  thousands  of 
pounds,  at  direct  public  expense,  to  bring  about  the  long-hoped-for  and 
much-desired  industrial  peace  and  contentment. 

Wages  Boards  have  been  introduced,  and  constituted  by  law  to 
adjust  the  differences  between  capital  and  labor;  master  and  man  sit 
at  one  table,  having  equal  rights,  and  equal  votes,  and  with  an  inde- 
pendent chairman.  The  Boards  meet  with  perfect  freedom,  and  under 
Government  protection. 

Arbitration  Courts  have  also  been  instituted,  with  the  same  objec- 
tive. Yet,  in  the  face  of  the  Constitution  providing  such  peaceful  and 
humanitarian  methods  to  settle  trade  disputes  and  differences,  Aus- 
tralian workers  are  on  every  hand  seething  with  discontent,  and  indus- 
trial turmoil  is  rife  in  many  quarters.  In  the  face  of  all  this,  the  bur- 
dened and  tired  public  asks,  "Are  strikes  and  trade  and  labor  troubles 
justified?"  *  *  * 

(PAGE  28) 

The  name  of  trades  unionism  is  today  inseparably  linked  with  the 
condonation  of  violence  and  other  illegal  acts,  and  frequently  the  courts 
of  our  State  are  called  upon  to  administer  a  well-deserved  check.  *  *  * 
Although  unionism  has  a  fairly  large  number  of  workmen  among  its 
members,  *  *  *  they  have  either  been  forced  into  its  ranks  by  coercion, 
or  under  pressure  from  a  section  of  their  fellow  workers  and  the  paid 
agitator,  or,  in  fear  of  being  classed  as  "scabs"  or  "blacklegs,"  they, 
for  peace  sake,  become  members.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  29) 

Australian  trades  unionism  today  is  an  organized  concreted  cam- 
paign, to  pit  class  against  class— a  warfare  of  hate  and  malice.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  30) 

The  moment  a  union  gets  strong  enough,  it  begins  a  policy  of 
restricting  membership,  restringing  apprentices  and  improvers,  restricting 
output,  and  in  many  other  ways  limiting  and  controlling  the  particular 
industry  for  the  advantage  of  its  own  members  and  to  the  disadvantage 
of  those  outside  its  ranks,  whether  they  be  employers  or  working  men, 
or  boys  desiring  to  learn  a  trade.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  31) 

As  we  are  all  aware.  Compulsory  Conciliation  and  Arbitration  is 
the  law  of  the  land.  Coincident  with  it  we  have  disputes  in  almost 
every  industry  to  an  extent  never  known  before.  This  lamentable  state 
of  affairs  is  most  injurious  to  the  workers  of  the  community,  who, 
forming,  as  they  do,  the?  majority  of  the  population,  feel  most  keenly 
any  stoppage  of  industry.  From  the  outset,  the  Compulsory  Conciliation 
and  Arbitration  principle  had  many  opponents.  The  term  is  in  itself  a 
misnomer,  since  conciliation  presupposes  compromise,  and  a  desire  on 
the  part  of  those  concerned  to  meet  each  other's  views  hardly  compatible 
with  the  compulsory  condition  of  the  law.  In  the  same  way,  since 
Arbitration  means  settling  disputes  without  an  appeal  to  law,  the  com- 
pulsory element  necessarily  destroys  the  principle  of  arbitration.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  32) 

That  the  result  of  the  experiment  has  not  been  wholly  satisfactory, 
the  most  ardent  of  the  advocates  must  admit.  Their  remedy  is  simple. 
"More  arbitration,"  they  declare,  is  wanted,  but  when  this  is  inquired 
into,  it  will  be  found  that  this  simply  means  "more  compulsion."  *  *  * 

101 


(PAGE  35) 

"No  differentiation"  is  the  watchword,  and  that  in  time  means  the 
production  of  one  vast  level.  The  Wages  Board  principle  recognizes  the 
rights  of  both  sides  to  consideration,  but  the  Arbitration  Court  system 
in  its  latest  development  considers  the  interests  of  only  one  side,  and 
would  have  the  Court,  its  judges  and  officers  simply  existing  to  register 
the  decision  of  the  labor  bodies.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  36) 

Australia  industrially  is  groaning  under  the  weight  of  legislative 
regulation  and  prohibition.  Less  law-making  is  now  wanted  and  more 
confidence.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  46) 

The  much  debated  question  of  preference  to  unionists  has  reached 
a  position  in  Australia  of  well-nigh  breaking  point.  When  first  intro- 
duced in  the  Federal  Act  it  was  thought  it  would  act  in  a  manner  that 
would  result  in  the  unions  adopting  clean  methods  and  a  peaceful  atti- 
tude in  connection  with  the  settlement  of  industrial  disputes,  but  such 
a  position  has  not  been  realized.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  49) 

Perhaps  the  greatest  setback  as  far  as  the  repulsion  of  public  sym- 
pathy is  concerned,  that  has  yet  been  received  by  organized  labor,  was 
when  on  September  18,  1911,  the  Labor  Prime  Minister,  Mr.  Andrew 
Fisher,  received  a  deputation  from  union  officials  of  the  Melbourne 
Trades  Hall,  and  afterward  announced  that  it  was  intended  that  as  far 
as  the  administrative  policy  of  that  Labor  Government  was  concerned, 
preference  was  to  be  given  to  unionists  in  Government  employ.  With  a 
large  majority  in  the  House,  the  Government  knew  that  it  had  a  three 
years'  run  to  go,  and  under  the  cracking  of  the  socialistic  whip  the 
Cabinet  was  compelled  to  state  its  policy  in  black  and  white,  and  the 
mandate  was  issued  that  in  the  engagement  of  all  temporary  employees 
in  the  Home  Affairs  Department  of  the  Commonwealth,  preference  to 
unionists  was  to  be  given.  At  once  there  was  a  public  outcry  against 
this  altogether  unprecedented  policy  of  spoils  for  the  victors  as  far  as 
Australian  public  life  was  concerned.  It  was  found  that  out  of  34,000 
persons  employed  by  the  Commonwealth,  19,000  were  outside  the  control 
of  the  Public  Service  Commissioner,  and  who  could  be  engaged  outside 
the  ordinary  policy  of  examination,  etc.,  which  is  usual  in  the  appoint- 
ments made  in  Government  offices.  The  Leader  of  the  Opposition, 
Mr.  Alfred  Deakin,  moved  a  motion  of  want  of  confidence  in  the 
Government.  He  moved:  "That  in  the  opinion  of  this  House,  the 
preference  in  obtaining  and  retaining  employment  recently  introduced 
into  his  Department  by  the  Minister  of  Home  Affairs,  is  unjust  and 
oppressive;  prejudicial  alike  to  the  public  interest,  and  to  the  public 
servants,  and  to  the  relations  between  Parliament  and  the  public  servants." 
The  issue  was  made  a  party  one,  and  of  course,  having  a  majority,  the 
union  representatives  in  the  House  carried  it.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  52) 

The  Secretary  of  the  Amalgamated  Miners'  Association  stated: 
"Our  unionists  will  not  work  with  non-unionists.  If  Mr.  Cook  wishes 
to  break  up  unionism  he  will  find  that  he  is  more  likely  to  cause  a  civil 
war.  If  Mr.  Cook  wants  to  clog  the  wheels  of  industrial  life,  he  is  going 
the  right  way  to  do  it."  *  *  * 

(PAGE  56) 

Within  two  years,  no  less  than  16  independent  unions  have  been 
created  that  acknowledge  the  identity  of  interest  between  capital  and 
labor,  and  who  eagerly  have  concentrated  their  activities  on  the  im- 
provement of  the  workers'  conditions;  the  upholding  of  the  law  of  the 

102 


land,  and  the  utilising  of  the  legislative  facilities  for  the  adjustment  of 
industrial  disputes.  Whether  the  forces  of  socialistic  unionism,  with 
its  attendant  weapons  of  the  boycott,  threat,  and  intimidation,  will  be 
so  strong  as  to  stultify  the  further  extension  of  this  movement,  has  yet 
to  be  proved.  But,  in  its  policy  of  compulsory  unionism,  it  has  been 
settled  in  the  eyes  of  the  union  boss  that  a  man  can  only  be  a  unionist, 
according  to  his  vision,  by  being  affiliated  with  a  political  or  socialistic 
union;  and  attempts  are  being  made  in  a  manner  which  holds  up  the 
workers'  cause  to  the  strong  criticism  of  public  opinion,  to  force  these 
independent  unionists  into  the  ranks  of  socialistic  bossdom.  Yet  the 
fallacy  of  this  position  is  worth  reviewing,  and  if  the  rank  and  file  of 
present  day  unionists  can  be  made  to  think  for  themselves,  there  is  still 
time  to  check  the  dangerous  policy  which  is  now  being  carried  on  by 
its  leaders.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  64) 

Another  fine  example  of  unionists'  tyranny  was  evidenced  recently 
in  Western  Australia  in  connection  with  the  Carters'  strike. 

Here  the  men,  contrary  to  the  law  made  by  their  own  Parliamentary 
representatives,  decided  to  use  force  rather  than  avail  themselves  of  the 
peaceful  means  of  adjusting  their  demands. 

Apparently,  no  doubt  realizing  their  demands  were  unjust  and  that 
a  Court  of  Equity  would  rule  against  them,  they  took  the  matter  into 
their  own  hands,  and  made  an  endeavor  to  hold  up  industry  in  the 
capital  of  that  State.  Other  workers  in  that  city  then  took  up  the 
cause  of  the  men,  and  on  behalf  of  the  general  public  made  an  endeavor 
to  keep  the  wheels  going  round. 

At  once  the  Secretary  of  the  local  socialistic  union  council  issued 
a  letter  to  all  affiliated  unions,  calling  on  all  fellow  unionists  to  treat  the 
independent  workers  as  rats,  and  to  make  their  life  the  life  a  rat  ought 
to  live,  for  no  other  guilt  than  their  decision  to  abide  by  the  law  of 
the  land. 

The  daily  labor  paper  of  Broken  Hill  recently  openly  stated  in  a 
leading  article,  that  as  far  as  unionism  was  concerned,  it  recognized  no 
liberty  of  the  individual.  That  socialistic  unionism  was  the  only  channel 
through  which  Australian  workers  could  be  represented,  and  all  workers 
outside  its  domination,  whether  organized  or  not,  were  traitors  to  them- 
selves and  to  the  State,  and  the  employment  of  every  justifiable  means  to 
procure  either  their  conversion  or  extinction  was  more  than  vindicated 
by  its  urgent  necessity.  Yet  still  the  fight  goes  on  between  worker  and 
worker.  *  *  '* 

(PAGE  65) 

Apparently  the  reason  why  some  unions  are  still  in  a  measure 
availing  themselves  of  the  legislative  methods  of  dealing  with  their 
industrial  disputes,  is  the  fact  that  they  are  not  strong  enough  numeri- 
cally to  do  without  it.  This  strange  position  was  emphasized  by  one 
of  the  leaders  in  Victorian  trade  unionism  recently,  who  in  the  press 
was  reported  to  have  stated :  "He  recommended  that  if  a  union  was 
strong  enough  to  do  without  a  Wages  Board  it  should  not  have  one.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  66) 

On  Sunday,  August,  1913,  the  Amalgamated  Miners'  Union  at 
Broken  Hill,  where  the  shop  assistants  were  on  strike,  passed  the  fol- 
lowing resolution: 

"That  this  association  pledges  itself  to  strike  a  levy  of  6d.  per 
member  per  week  to  assist  the  shop  assistants  and  warehouse  employees 
in  their  industrial  trouble,  provided  that  they  do  not  go  to  a  Wages 
Board  for  a  settlement  of  their  dispute,  and  that  the  levy  be  dispensed 
by  the  Executive  of  the  A.  M.  A.,  who  are  to  arrange  with  the  Executive 
of  the  Shop  Assistants'  Federation  for  the  disposal  of  the  levy  col- 
lected." 

103 


There  we  have  a  union  offering  a  monetary  bribe  to  another  union 
if  it  will  evade  and  ignore  the  lawful  Wages  Board.  Surely  this  posi- 
tion will  open  the  other  eyes  of  the  extreme  unionistic  partisan.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  71) 

With  all  the  much  boasted  legislation  put  on  the  Australian  Statute 
Books  at  the  cost  of  many  thousands  of  pounds,  and  as  the  outcome  of 
the  enlightened  intellect  of  educated  workers,  yet  in  the  face  of  all  this 
discord  still  exists.  Penalties  for  the  disobeying  of  the  law  have  little, 
if  any  effect.  Unions  willingly  pay  the  cost  of  huge  fines  oftentimes 
inflicted  upon  them  as  the  direct  result  of  the  rash  leadership  of  those 
in  authority.  It  seems  as  if  the  way  to  prevent  strikes  is  not  in  the 
direction  of  punishments  by  the  legislative  penalties.  The  Chief  In- 
spector of  Factories  in  Melbourne  recently  stated  that  all  legislation 
passed  hitherto  to  that  end  had  been  abortive.  Neither  direct  punish- 
ment, nor  courts,  nor  Boards  of  Conciliation  have  had  any  real  effect. 
Apart  from  the  doubtful  quality  of  such  legislation  it  is  wrong  in  prin- 
ciple from  the  fact  that  it  attacks  the  effect  and  not  the  cause.  We  must 
remove  the  cause  of  strikes,  he  said.  *  *  *  In  Australia  the  cause  of  indus- 
trial discontent  at  the  present  time  is  not  that  the  conditions  under 
which  men  labor  are  injurious  or  harmful,  it  is  not  that  wages  generally 
are  low  or  hours  of  labor  long,  but  it  can  be  attributed  more  or  less  to 
the  harmful  influence  of  the  class  hatred  policy  of  the  syndicalist  and 
man  of  revolutionary  methods.  Rid  organized  labor  of  this  policy,  substi- 
tute one  which  gives  equal  opportunities  to  all  and  favors  to  none,  and 
which  will  endeavor  to  educate  democracy  along  the  line  of  rational 
enlightenment;  together  with  the  preaching  of  the  highest  ideals  of 
Christian  Brotherhood,  and  then  there  will  be  a  reasonable  hope  of 
industrial  peace. 

Perhaps  there  is  not  more  irritating  factor  causing  bitter  antagon- 
ism of  employers  toward  labor  unions  than  that  of  the  blatant  manner 
in  which  modern  unions  break  agreements.  It  is  a  common  occurrence 
for  unions  to  break  legitimate  agreements  made  between  employers  and 
men,  at  the  shortest  notice.  As  an  example  of  this  can  be  quoted  the 
case  of  the  colliery  proprietors  in  New  South  Wales. 

During  1912  a  joint  Conciliation  Committee  was  appointed,  and  for 
some  time  was  occupied  in  the  position  of  mediator  between  the  em- 
ployers and  employees  in  connection  with  industrial  matters  in  that 
district. 

As  the  outcome  of  friction,  the  employers'  representatives  withdrew 
from  the  Committee,  and  the  following  letter,  dictated  by  the  Secretary 
of  the  Colliery  Proprietors'  Defence  Association,  was  sent  to  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Colliery  Employees'  Federation: 

Dear  Sir:— I  beg  to  advise  you  that  the  colliery  proprietors  at 
their  meeting  today  decided  to  withdraw  from  the  joint  conciliation 
committee.  When  the  committee  was  constituted  it  was  clearly  under- 
stood that  there  could  be  no  excuse  for  interruptions  in  trade  caused 
by  stoppages  of  collieries  by  individual  lodges,  but  the  committee  had 
not  long  been  in  existence  before  the  colliery  owners  had  to  put  up- 
with  the  same  state  of  affairs  as  existed  prior  thereto. 

There  is  no  need  for  me  to  dilate  upon  the  serious  effect  which 
those  sudden  stoppages  have  upon  the  trade  of  the  port,  because  this 
has  been  pointed  out  to  your  federation  upon  numerous  occasions  in 
the  past,  so  much  so  that  the  miners  must  realize  what  their  actions 
mean  to  the  colliery  proprietors  and  the  conduct  of  their  business. 
However,  the  colliery  proprietors  have  manifested  a  considerable  amount 
of  forbearance  in  overlooking  the  transgressions  of  the  miners,  but 
despite  repeated  warnings  which  have  gone  forth  from  the  owners' 
representatives  on  the  joint  committee  the  position  is  not  improved,  but 
rather  the  contrary. 

104 


As  you  are  aware,  the  joint  committee  held  its  first  meeting  on  the 
28th  February  of  last  year,  and  up  to  the  I4th  November,  a  period  of 
eight  months  and  a  half,  no  fewer  than  44  stoppages  are  recorded. 
At  this  particular  stage  the  joint  committee  arrived  at  the  conclusion 
that  unless  something  could  be  done  to  put  a  stop  to  these  cessations  of 
work,  which  were  seriously  interfering  with  the  operations  of  the  joint 
committee,  that  tribunal  would  be  rendered  useless. 

The  committee  was  then  adjourned  for  a  week,  and  in  the  mean- 
time the  miners,  through  the  medium  of  the  combined  lodge  meetings, 
were  appealed  to  to  observe  that  portion  of  the  constitution  of  the  joint 
committee  which  provided  for  disputes  being  referred  to  it,  instead  of 
laying  the  mines  idle.  Every  lodge  in  the  district  was  appealed  to  in  this 
way,  and  the  result  in  every  case  was  a  unanimous  decision  not  to  inter- 
fere with  the  work  of  the  committee  by  the  cessation  of  work  at  the 
mines.  The  committee  then  got  to  work  again,  and  in  a  brief  period  of  a 
month  between  that  time  and  the  adjournment  of  the  Christmas  vacation, 
on  23rd  December  last,  there  were  fewer  than  six  stoppages,  and  since 
the  latter  date  the  Rhonda,  Burwood  and  Elermore  Vale  collieries  have 
been  stopped,  to  say  nothing  of  the  aggregate  meeting  which  was  held 
on  Monday  last  when  nearly  the  whole  of  the  Maitland  collieries  were 
laid  idle.  This  is  a  position  which  the  proprietors  refuse  to  tolerate 
any  longer  and  has  led  to  the  decision  arrived  at  by  them  referred  to  in 
the  opening  sentence  of  this  letter.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  75) 

A  leading  employers'  journal  recently  stated:  "While  it  is  manifest 
that  unless  labor  tyranny  is  to  be  allowed  to  run  rampant,  a  counter- 
acting combination  must  be  formed."  This  is  the  lesson  of  experience. 
There  has  never  been  any  combination  between  employers  which  has 
not  been  preceded  by  a  combination  of  workers.  Self-defence  compels 
employers  to  combine.  Before  that,  it  was  the  union  boss  who  attacked 
them  singly  and  defeated  them  easily.  *  *  *  This  clash  of  arms  between 
Capital  and  Labor  can  have  no  good  result.  The  damage  that  will  be 
done  before  common  sense  rule  is  established  will  be  immense.  In  Bris- 
bane during  the  general  strike,  when  the  employers  combined  and  locked 
put  many  of  their  workers,  while  the  unions  called  out  others,  is  a  case 
in  point.  Because  the  Courts  ruled  against  the  workers  and  the  forces 
of  law  and  order  were  brought  into  focus  to  maintain  peace  and  order 
in  the  city,  the  official  organ  of  organized  labor  in  Australia,  The 
Worker,  in  its  issue  of  January  9,  1913,  stated:  "As  the  case  has  been 
decided  against  them  so,  labor  must  not  only  be  prepared  to  strike, 

but  to  back  up  the  strike  by  armed  force — go  in  for  civil  war  in  fact." 

*  *  * 

(PAGE  78) 

The  Australian  public  is  living  dangerously  near  the  edge  of  a 
volcano.  So  far  the  outbursts  have  been  brought  more  or  less  under 
control  before  whole  communities  have  become  engulfed  in  disaster,  but 
the  escape  has  been  perilously  narrow  more  than  once.  Unionism  ap- 
pears to  have  lost  its  sense  of  responsibility. 

Theoretically,  under  industrial  arbitration,  labor  surrenders  the 
right  to  strike,  and  relies  upon  the  law  to  see  that  it  gets  fair  treatment 
at  the  hands  of  the  employers.  But  legal  "Awards"  have  given  only 
partial  satisfaction  to  labor.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  79) 

At  Broken  Hill,  the  home  of  "modern  and  advanced  unionism," 
a  controversy  recently  waged  hot  and  strong  in  the  local  labor  press  on 
a  proposal  that  "experienced  men  should  be  excluded  from  union  mem- 
bership," on  the  theory  that  being  "experienced"  he  may  some  day  be- 
come a  boss,  and  would  then  know  all  the  "secrets"  of  unionism.  It  was 

105 


"allowing  the  enemy  to  enter  the  camp,"  was  the  text  of  this  strange 
argument.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  83) 

It  is  increased  productivity  that  gives  wages  a  natural  rise.  Pro- 
ductivity or  efficiency  is  the  legitimate  reason  for  higher  wages.  No  one 
knows  the  justice  of  this  principle  better  than  the  crafty  militant  union 
leader;  but  it  pays  him  better  to  keep  in  with  the  "new  school,"  and 
thus  we  have  the  strange  anomaly  that  while  the  wages  in  Australia  are 
among  the  highest  in  the  world  for  all  classes  of  skilled  and  unskilled 
labor,  and  hours  are  shorter  than  many  other  of  the  foremost  countries 
of  the  world,  yet  still  Australia  is  teeming  with  industrial  unrest.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  87) 

It  is  not  often  that  unionism  is  prepared  to  listen  to  the  advice  of 
an  employers'  organization,  but  it  will  act  as  "balance"  to  hear  the 
opinions  of  the  President  of  a  Victorian  Employers'  Association,  a  well- 
known  and  respected  public  man,  and  one  who  has,  unlike  the  union 
leaders  of  the  Barrier,  been  able  to  make  a  success  of  his  own  business. 
In  a  recent  speech  he  is  reported  as  stating  the  following  solemn  truths : 
"Men  were  not  refusing  to  join  unions,"  he  said,  "because  they 
wished  to  sneak  out  of  paying  for  any  advantages  that  might  be  derived 
from  its  work,  but  because  such  a  state  of  tyranny  was  being  built  up 
that  those  who  otherwise  would  be  willing  to  pay  their  share  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  an  organization  which  meant  their  surrender  of  every 
vestige  of  personal  freedom  and  respect."  This  is  the  truth,  and 
Australian  workers  know  it,  although  it  is  an  employer  who  so  plainly 
states  the  position. 

Yes,  it  can  be  truthfully  stated,  "that  self-respect"  is  at  stake  today. 
What  self-respecting  worker  would  be  willing  to  financially  support  a 
union  that  employs  as  its  official  organizer  one  who  stands  before  his 
admirers  and  states: 

"If  a  non-unionist  is  wheeling  a  truck,  put  sand  on  his  wheels;  if 
he  asks  you  for  a  light,  strike  a  match,  blow  it  out  and  put  the  box 
back  in  your  pocket.  Never  speak  to  him.  If  you  are  a  'shouting'  in 
a  pub.,  leave  him  out;  if  he  is  shouting,  leave  yourself  out.  Don't  insult 
him  or  hurt  him,  for  it  will  only  arouse  sympathy  for  him,  but  if  anyone 
else  is  punching  his  head,  don't  try  to  stop  him.  I  know  a  lot  of  you 
would  like  to  throw  all  non-unionists  into  the  Murray,  but  don't  do 
that.  Still,  if  you  see  one  drowning,  don't  go  to  help  him." 

Apparently,  there  is  hardly  a  limit  to  which  the  "extreme"  union 
official  will  not  go  to  incite  his  dupes. 

And  a  further  serious  aspect  is  presented  when  we  consider  that 
the  United  Laborers'  Union,  the  employees  or  the  organizer  who  holds 
and  states  these  anarchical  views  is  affiliated  with  the  Trades  Hall  Coun- 
cils of  the  various  States,  and  it  was  from  this  Council  that  the  recent 
Federal  Labor  Government  received  a  deputation  of  union  bosses,  who 
urged  the  following  condition:  , 

"That  in  connection  with  Commonwealth  work,  preference  be  given 
to  unionists,  i.  e.,  that  in  cases  where  workmen  were  required  by  Com- 
monwealth Departments,  such  men  should  be  engaged  through  the 
Trades  Hall." 

And  the  reply  of  the  Labor  Prime  Minister,  the  custodian  of  the 
public  purse,  was: 

"In  regard  to  your  representations  in  favor  of  preference  to  union- 
ists, that  is  the  policy  of  the  Government.  As  to  hiring  the  men  through 
the  Trades  Hall,  so  far  from  being  antagonistic  to  the  proposal,  I  am 
decidedly  in  favor  of  it."  *  *  * 

(PAGE  90) 

War  breeds  after  its  kind,  so  do  strikes  and  their  progeny  is  hatred, 
uncharitableness  and  all  ill-will.  They  leave  behind  them  legacies  of 

106 


bitterness.      They    may    sweep    away    some    abuses    but    they    generally 
create  more.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  92) 

Nowadays,  organized  labor  itself,  through  its  governments,  has 
declared  the  strike  illegal  in  Australia,  and  has  finally  adopted  a  new 
method  of  getting  justice.  Yet  within  three  years  we  have  had  no  less 
a  number  than  349  distinct  breakings  of  the  law.  Yet  no  official  of 
organized  labor  has  so  far  told  the  strikers  that  they  are  a  new  kind 
of  "scab."  "It  is  about  time,"  stated  the  Sydney  Bulletin  recently, 
"that  somebody  did  so;  assuming  that  organized  labor  is  in  earnest  in 
finally  adopting  arbitration  as  its  weapon,  and  if  it  is  not  in  earnest,  it 
had  better  drop  the  pretence  overboard  at  once."  *  *  * 

(PAGE  96) 

There  is  no  time  in  unionistic  ranks  for  independence  of  thought. 
As  an  indication  of  this,  in  the  Melbourne  Argus  of  ipth  July,  1912,  was 
reported  what  appears  to  be  another  example  of  union  tyranny,  which 
has  led  to  the  resignation  of  a  member  of  one  of  the  principal  Wages 
Boards  in  Victoria.  This  man  was  a  representative  of  the  employees 
on  this  Board,  and  on  one  or  two  occasions  happening  to  find  himself 
in  agreement  with  the  employers  sitting  on  the  board,  he  voted  with  them. 
For  this  act  he  was  summoned  to  appear  before  the  Committee  of  the 
union,  and  asked  for  an  explanation.  His  defence  apparently  did  not 
satisfy  the  Committee,  and  he  was  informed  that  "no  matter  that  my 
own  opinions  were  rightly  or  wrongly,  I  must  on  all  occasions  vote 
with  the  union  members  of  the  board."  The  employee  declined  to  submit 
to  these  orders,  and  at  once  intimated  his  resignation,  and  in  a  letter  to 
the  Department  he  explained  the  circumstances  and  stated  "rather  than 
sacrifice  my  own  will  and  become  a  mere  automaton,  I  will  retire  and 
allow  one  who  is  not  so  particular  to  do  their  will."  This  is  the  action 
of  a  brave  man,  and  it  is  needless  to  state  how  he  will  fare  in  the  future 
at  the  hands  of  the  union  boss.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  no) 

The  unionistic  politicians  in  their  socialistic  gospel  tell  the  workers, 
that  Nationalisation  is  the  only  panacea  for  their  industrial  troubles ;  but 
this  is  not  justified  by  convincing  evidence.  In  New  South  Wales,  the 
Government's  own  railways  were  disorganized  by  the  rash  actions  of 
trades  union  employees,  as  reported  more  fully  elsewhere. 

The  great  Victorian  railway  strike  is  another  instance  where  Na- 
tionalisation failed  in  its  "peace"  qualities. 

The  Hon.  Alfred  Deakin,  one  of  the  most  liberal  and  democratic 
of  the  Australian  statesmen,  and  a  prominent  leader  in  the  Anti-Sweat- 
ing League,  summed^  up  the  position  in  a  recent  speech  dealing  with 
the  industrial  unrest : 

"The  solution  which  appears  to  find  most  favor  with  the  labor 
politicians — or  from  the  people  who  support  them  most  loudly — is  that 
of  universal  employment  by  and  under  a  legislature  elected  by  that 
community.  One  can  hardly  conceive  of  a  worse  or  more  unworkable 
method.  The  confusion  of  the  business  of  politics  of  the  financial 
interests  of  individuals  and  classes  with  the  comprehensive  interests  of 
the  nation  would  occasion  the  worst  encounters,  and  threatens  the  most 
disastrous  results."  *  *  * 

(PAGE  112) 

The  statement  published  in  an  interview  with  the  Labor  Minister 
of  Works  in  N.  S.  W.,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  Railway  strike,  surely 
is  sufficient  evidence  to  prove  that  the  opinions  of  the  other  statement 
as  quoted  here  are  worthy  of  serious  consideration  and  study  by  all 
wage-earners. 

"We  can  no  longer  logically  propose  the  Nationalisation  of  indus- 

TO; 


tries  as  a  cure  for  industrial  trouble,"  is  the  judgment  of  this  Labor 
Minister  of  State;  then,  following  up  this  contention,  unionists  will  re- 
call the  statement  of  the  Minister  of  Labor  in  that  same  N.  S.  W. 
Labor  Cabinet.  If  the  unions  are  everlastingly  kicking  at  the  people, 
the  people  will  kick  back  at  the  unions.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  118) 

Universal  discontent  and  general  disgust  with  the  present  state  of 
industry  is  probably  an  accurate  summary  of  the  views  of  any  intelligent 
observer  today.  Everything  is  unsettled;  no  one  seems  anxious  to  find 
points  of  agreement. 

The  theory  of  a  normal  attitude  of  criticism  and  cynicism  holds 
the  field.  "When  there  should  be  a  willingness,"  recently  wrote  a  well- 
known  student  of  industrialism,  "to  meet  men  for  discussion  sullenness 
prevails,  and  altogether,  the  first  decade  of  this  2Oth  century  closes  a 
chapter  of  pessimism."  *  *  * 

(PAGE  128) 

For,  after  all,  there  is  much  wisdom  in  the  statement  of  the  writer 
who  said,  "The  disease  of  strike  is  really  the  disease  of  loaf  in  a  bad 
form — a  disease  that  can  kill  the  healthiest  nation  quicker  than  the  guns 
of  a  possible  invader."  *  *  * 

(PAGE  130) 

Tt  has  been  shrewdly  suggested  in  the  columns  of  the  press  that  the 
best  remedy  for  strikes  would  be  disfranchisement.  There  is  very  much 
to  be  said  for  that  view.  Every  striker  who  defies  the  law,  having  a  legal 
remedy  in  a  Wages  Board  or  Arbitration  Court,  and  who  flouts  both 
and  flies  to  strike  violence,  is  a  criminal,  and  as  a  criminal  should  be 
deprived  of  his  franchise.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  132) 

Is  it  to  be  finally  concluded  then  that  this  "slow-down"  policy,  which 
is  so  often  quoted  about  by  employers,  is  as  bad  as  reported?  What  an 
advertisement  for  a  young,  developing  country,  which  is  rising  to  take 
its  place  among  the  manufacturing  countries  of  the  world.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  134) 

Another  case  where  the  doctrine  of  the  "slow-down"  policy  stands 
condemned  was  recently  cited  by  a  South  Australian  politician  in  dealing 
with  higher  wages  and  less  work.  He  said: 

"Take  bricklayers.  A  few  years  ago,  when  a  bricklayer's  wage  was 
9s.  a  day  he  used  to  lay  about  800  bricks,  but  today  when  his  wages  run 
from  135.  to  155.,  or  i6s.,  he  lays  about  400  bricks.  Let  us  get  back  to 
the  building  of  a  cottage  which  today  costs  £270.  Where  does  the  dif- 
ference in  cost  come  in?  The  value  of  the  timber,  on  which  there  is 
not  a  considerable  amount  of  labor  bestowed  for  that  four-roomed 
cottage,  has  not  increased  by  more  than  at  the  very  outside  £30.  But  the 
cost  of  building  that  cottage  was  nearly  doubled.  The  point  is  that 
socialism  is  aiming  at  equality.  They  are  aiming  at  an  impossible  thing. 
No  such  thing  as  equality  is  possible  unless  they  destroy  liberty.  If 
you  have  equality,  there  is  no  liberty,  and  if  you  have  liberty  there  can 
be  no  equality. 

The  Socialistic  Labor  principle  of  today  is  to  pull  everyone  down 
to  the  level  of  the  average  man,  and  then  call  themselves  democrats. 
True  democracy  means  calling  every  man  up  to  the  height  of  his  capacity 
for  service.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  143) 

There  is  a  call— an  urgent  call— at  the  present  time  being  made  to 
Australian  workers  to  rise  up  from  the  mire  into  which  they  have  been 
dragged,  and  to  respond  to  their  better  nature,  and  the  appeal  from  the 

108 


general  public   for  justice  and   for  sane  reasoning.     This   bitter  hatred 
between  Capital  and  Labor  must  be  turned  down.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  171) 

A  skilled  worker  representing  a  powerful  union  said  at  a  recent 
sitting  that  he  and  his  colleagues  were  sent  there  to  get  increases,  no 
matter  what  their  own  individual  opinions  might  be.  They  would  only 
vote  the  one  way,  and  he  supposed  the  employers'  delegates  would  vote 
the  other  way,  so  that  the  chairman  would  have  to  make  the  decision. 
It  did  not  matter  what  increase  the  Board  gave;  the  unions  were  de- 
termined to  go  on  and  ask  for  more.  They  had  no  minimum,  and  no 
concern  as  to  what  effect  it  had  on  the  industry.  If  it  meant  killing  it, 
then  it  would  have  to  be  killed.  If  they  did  not  carry  out  their  in- 
structions, they  would  at  once  be  shunted,  and  others  more  determined 
would  take  their  place.  They  were  out  for  all  they  could  possibly  get, 
regardless  of  any  other  issue,  and  the  future  must  be  left  to  take  care 
of  itself.  This  was  an  honest  exposition  of  the  policy  of  the  Trades 
Hall  and  employees'  delegates  to  the  Wages  Board,  and  correctly  inter- 
preted their  attitude  at  the  meetings,  which  were  really  degenerating  into 
a  farce.  The  question  of  increase  of  wages  had  today  no  relation  to 
the  condition  of  an  industry  or  its  ability  to  bear  the  burden  of  increased 
wages'  cost.  The  only  solution  they  saw  was  that  when  an  industry 
could  not  further  continue  by  passing  the  increased  cost  on  to  the 
public,  the  Government  must  proceed  to  prohibitive  duties,  or,  better 
still,  nationalise  all  industries.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  182) 

The  issue  is  plain.  It  is  not  whether  political  unionism  is  right  or 
wrong.  It  is  now  more  than  an  issue ;  it  is  nearing  a  crisis.  It  is  a 
struggle  between  law  and  lawlessness.  It  is  an  issue  that  has  now  reached 
its  culmination  in  this  country? 

Today  the  Australian  people — each  man,  woman  and  child  of  whom 
is  directly  interested  in  our  common  industrial  welfare — must  face  the 
question  whether  socialistic  and  ofttimes  criminal  unionism  or  law  and 
order  and  common  justice,  shall  prevail.  *  *  * 

(PAGE  204) 

Recently  a  large  employer  of  labor  said: 

"I  have  dealt  with  organized  labor  for  perhaps  20  years,  and  we 
have  kept  our  industry  running,  but  at  the  expense  of  much  thought, 
time,  and  money,  and  all  we  have  so  far  been  able  to  accomplish,  has 
simply  been  to  sit  on  the  safety  valve  and  prevent  an  explosion.  How 
long  we  shall  be  able  to  do  this  is  problematical."  *  *  * 

(PAGE  206) 

Even  though  this  appeal  from  a  worker  to  workers  is  as  a  man 
crying  out  in  a  wilderness,  yet  just  as  surely  as  the  sun  rises  and  sets, 
the  peaceful  solution  of  labor  problems  must  eventually  obtain  if  this 
country  is  to  advance.  Men  of  great  foresight  and  broad  views  are 
coming  to  understand  this  as  never  before,  and  the  doctrine  here  taught, 
will,  I  believe,  find  a  lodgment  in  the  hearts  of  all  classes,  and  then 
the  day  of  the  square  deal  will  surely  dawn. 

Woman  Suffrage. 

In  the  matter  of  political  franchise  in  Australia,  the  right 
to  vote  at  all  elections  is  extended  to  women  equally  with  men, 
and,  as  this  right  of  franchise  is  of  long  standing,  the  argument 
that  woman  suffrage  will  purify  politics  and  better  the  condi-* 
tion  of  women  does  not  hold  good  in  these  countries.  We  dis- 

109 


cussed  this  question  with  many  men  and  women,  in  both  New 
Zealand  and  Australia,  and  found  no  one  who  did  not  express 
the  opinion,  substantially,  that  the  votes  of  women  were  more 
responsible  for  the  unfavorable  industrial  conditions  than  any 
other  influence,  for  the  reason  that  the  political  power  of  the 
organized  forces  was  doubled  by  the  women's  vote,  while  the 
vote  of  the  unorganized  classes  was  not  proportionately  increased 
because  of  the  indifference  and  apathy  of  the  women  of  these 
classes,  particularly  among  the  society  women,  who  take  but  little 
or  no  interest  in  political  matters.  In  fact,  so  far  as  our  obser- 
vations extended,  the  interests  of  women  would  be  the  better 
safeguarded  if  left  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  men.  To  us, 
a  most  lamentable  spectacle  of  disrespect  for  womanhood  is  the 
general  custom  of  "barmaids"  in  the  saloons  of  Australasia,  in 
most  of  which  women,  instead  of  men,  dispense  the  liquids.  If 
woman  suffrage  means  anything  at  all,  it  should  never  permit 
the  existence  of  a  system  so  degrading  to  womanhood  as  the 
passing  out  of  beer  and  whiskey  over  saloon  bars,  and  the  fact 
that  such  is  the  common  custom  throughout  Australasia,  where 
for  many  years  women  have  exercised  the  right  to  .vote,  does 
not  warrant  the  claim  that  woman  suffrage  is  either  beneficial 
or  elevating  to  womanhood.  So  far  as  we  could  ascertain, 
Parliament  has  not  enacted  a  single  ^law  especially  beneficial  to 
or  at  the  instance  of  women  during  its  existence.  Social  in- 
dustrial justice  has  not  been  advanced  by  the  votes  of  women, 
else  class  domination  and  color  discrimination  would  have 
ceased. 

"A  White  Australia." 

One  cannot  mingle  very  long  among  the  people  of  Australia 
without  realizing  the  fact  that  many  of  them  have  strong  preju- 
dices against  every  human  being  through  whose  veins  flows  a 
drop  of  blood  which  gives  to  the  skin  a  tinge  of  yellow,  black  or 
brown.  Their  slogan  is,  "A  White  Australia,"  for  admission  to 
which  no  member  of  the  colored  races  need  apply.  They  have 
buried,  deep  down  in  oblivion,  all  memory  of  the  fact  that  this 
country  which  they  now  so  boldly  declare  shall  be  a  "white  man's 
country"  was,  not  so  very  long  ago,  a  black  man's  country, 
and  that,  had  the  aborigines,  who  are  of  the  blackest  of  black 
men,  adopted  the  policy  that  none  but  black,  yellow  or  brown 
men  should  inhabit  it,  the  white  man  might  just  now  be  a  curi- 
osity in  Australia,  and  these  same  aborigines,  instead  of  being 
hived  together  in  a  little  section  by  themselves,  might  be  enjoy- 
ing that  which  is  justly  their  own. 

There  is  no  country  or  spot  of  ground  in  the  wide  world, 
no  matter  by  what  people  inhabited,  that  the  white  man  does 

1 10 


not  invade  just  as  soon  as  he  discovers  there  is  wealth  to  be 
obtained  there,  and  his  first  move  is  to  grab  all  that  is  worth 
having  and  drive  the  natives  "into  their  holes."  Every  man, 
of  whatever  race  or  color,  has  the  right  to  go  anywhere  on  earth 
to  seek  the  opportunity  to  earn  a  living  and  accumulate  wealth, 
if  he  goes  about  it  honestly  and  does  not  intrude  on  the  rights 
of  others  or  violate  the  law.  To  discriminate  against  a  China- 
man, Japanese,  Hindu,  or  any  other  human  being  by  uncondi- 
tionally denying  them  this  right,  while  granting  it  to  all  others, 
is  a  crime  not  only  against  these  people,  but  against  the  Creator 
of  all  men,  for  which,  some  day,  the  white  man  will  have  to 
render  an  account. 

There  are  more  than  450,000,000  people  in  China,  325,000,- 
ooo  in  India,  36,000,000  in  Java  and  50,000,000  in  Japan,  a  total 
of  approximately  861,000,000  in  these  four  countries  alone,  be- 
sides many  more  millions  scattered  throughout  the  Far  East,  all 
of  whom  come  under  the  ban  of  Australia's  "White  Man's" 
policy.  The  combined  area  of  China,  India,  Java  and  Japan  is 
approximately  6,367,400  square  miles,  having  an  average  of 
135  persons  to  the  square  mile,  while  Australia  has  2,974,581 
square  miles  with  an  average  of  a  trifle  over  one  and  one-half 
persons  to  the  square  mile. 

The  white  man  in  all  countries,  particularly  in  America, 
is  spending  millions  of  dollars  annually  in  the  support  of  mis- 
sionaries to  teach  the  yellow,  black  and  brown  races  to  aspire  to 
higher  ideals,  and  at  the  same  time  they  are  denying  these  per- 
sons the  right  of  opportunity  to  obtain  the  higher  standard  of 
living  which  they  are  educating  them  to  aspire  to.  Surely  there 
is  no  consistency  in  such  "benevolence,"  and  the  higher  education 
which  these  people  are  gradually  acquiring  is  opening  their  eyes 
to  the  insults  which  the  "white  man"  is  heaping  upon  them. 
Bitter  will  be  the  punishment  when  the  accounting  is  demanded, 
perhaps  in  less  than  fifty  years  hence.  They  have  a  real  griev- 
ance to  settle,  and  the  sooner  the  "white  man"  silences  the  dema- 
gogues who  cater  and  truckle  to  the  shrieks  of  labor  agitators 
and  undesirable  "white"  citizens  and  treat  these  people  fairly,  the 
farther  off  will  the  day  of  reckoning  be,  and  the  less  serious  its 
consequences.  Many  Australians  realize  this  and  are  filled  with 
fear  that,  particularly,  China  and  Japan  have  designs  on  Austra- 
lia's vast  area  of  peopleless  territory  as  a  relief  station  for  their 
already  over-crowded  and  ever-increasing  population.  These 
labor  agitators  are  insisting  upon  social  industrial  justice  for 
their  own  privileged  few,  while  flagrantly  compelling  the  Govern- 
ment to  deny  it  to  these  and  all  non-unionists  and  employers. 

Mention  the  subject  to  almost  any  man  you  chance  to  talk 

in 


with  and  he  will  express  the  fear,  if  not  the  belief,  that  unless 
they  manage  to  settle  up  the  country  before  very  long,  the 
"Japs"  or  the  Chinese  will  people  it  for  them,  in  spite  of  their 
restrictive  color  laws  and  in  face  of  any  defence  that  Australia 
could  possibly  muster,  with  her  compulsory  trained  army  and 
infant  navy,  and  such  short-sighted  Governmental  discrimination 
would  itself  furnish  the  cause  of  war.  The  Japanese-British 
alliance  may  be  relied  upon  temporarily  to  appease  the  situation 
and  delay  the  day  of  reckoning,  but  when  the  day  for  retribution 
does  come,  no  alliance  will  stand  in  the  way  of  its  execution. 
Take,  for  example,  Queensland,  with  670,000  square  miles  and 
656,000  population,  and  the  Northern  Territory,  523,000  square 
miles  and  3,700  population.  If,  perchance,  there  should  some 
fine  morning  be  50,000,000  people  landed  on  the  shores  of  these 
two  spots  on  the  map,  they  would  then  only  be  one-third  as 
thickly  peopled  as  are  the  countries  named  in  the  above  estimate. 
Land  now  worth  ten  "bobs"  (shillings)  an  acre  would  then  rise 
in  value  an  hundredfold,  and,  in  accordance  with  the  socialistic 
or  communistic  theory,  toward  which  Australia  is  rapidly  drift- 
ing, why  should  those  people  be  crowded  into  the  sea  when  there 
are  such  large  areas  of  unpopulated  country  near  by  which  by 
dint  of  hard  toil,  for  which  they  are  noted,  they  could  cultivate 
and  enjoy  the  privilege  of  performing  their  fair  share  in  the  eco- 
nomic problem  of  life.  "But,"  cries  the  workless  agitator,  "we 
can't  compete  with  coolie  labor."  No  such  cry  comes  from  the 
business  man,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  demagogic  poli- 
ticians in  Australia,  as  in  the  United  States,  pander  to  an  or- 
ganized labor  monopoly  and  use  their  influence  in  Parliament  to 
further  legislation  tending  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  shift- 
less and  improvident,  at  the  expense  of  the  thrifty  and  compe- 
tent, and  at  the  same  time,  and  by  the  same  means,  further  a 
condition  of  ruthless  competition  in  business. 

The  socialistic  labor  unionists  and  their  sympathizers  are 
infected  with  the  craven  idea  that  if  the  man  of  color  is  permitted 
to  settle  in  Australia,  a  few  years  will  see  the  black  man,  the 
yellow  and  the  brown  man  "in  the  saddle,"  and  in  superior 
authority  to  themselves.  It  is  as  common  in  Australia  as  it  is 
in  the  United  States  for  public  demagogues  who  wax  fat  in 
their  profession  to  talk  a  great  deal  about  the  "dignity  of  labor," 
while  all  laborers  would  willingly  forego  their  share  of  the  dignity 
if  they  could  rid  themselves  of  the  necessity.  If,  then,  there  is 
so  much  dignity  in  labor,  the  Chinese  and  the  Japanese  coolies 
are  supreme  in  all  its  glory,  for  they  can  teach  the  "white  man" 
how  to  labor  and  what  labor  really  is,  yet  we  hear  not  a  word 
from  them  about  its  dignity.  To  exclude  them,  unconditionally, 

112 


from  any  country  is  to  fear  them,  and  if  they  are  inferior,  to 
fear  them  is  cowardice  of  the  rankest  kind. 

If  a  Chinaman  or  a  "Jap,"  or  any  other  so-called  man  of 
color,  can  do  certain  work  for  less  pay  than  the  so-called  white 
man  and  do  it  as  well  or  better,  he  certainly  is  entitled  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  "dignity  of  labor"  and  its  economic  results  in  any 
country  in  which  labor  is  dignity,  and,  after  all  that  is  said 
against  him,  if  you  will  compare  the  coolie,  for  example,  with 
the  thousands  of  shiftless  loafers  and  bums  that  swarm  the 
parks,  the  wharfs  and  saloons  of  Australia,  and  with  the  millions 
of  undesirables  we  not  only  admit  but  welcome  to  the  United 
States  as  "white  men,"  you  will  find  them  far  more  desirable 
residents  in  any  community,  for  they  are  a  peaceably  inclined, 
law  abiding,  provident,  temperate  and  industrious  people.  They 
are  frugal  in  their  habits  and  get  as  much  for  their  -labor  as 
economic  conditions  will  allow.  They  adapt  themselves  to  cir- 
cumstances and  waste  nothing.  Their  "white"  antagonists  could, 
if  they  would,  learn  from  them  a  lesson  in  this  respect  that  would 
be  most  helpful  in  lessening  the  discontent  that  is  so  prevalent 
among  themselves.  These  people  are  polite  and  courteous  by 
nature,  and  their  natural  bent  is  in  the  direction  of  good  citizen- 
ship rather  than  toward  being  a  burden  upon  society. 

During  24  days'  stay  in  four  principal  cities  in  China,  one 
in  Manchuria  and  three  in  Japan,  we  made  frequent  visits  to  the 
coolie  districts  without  witnessing  a  single  drunk  or  disorderly 
person,  while  in  Australia  we  found  drunkenness  to  be  a  com- 
mon pastime. 

Australians  of  all  classes  are  liberal  spenders.  A  favorite 
argument  of  the  labor  agitator  against  these  excluded  classes 
is,  that  they  don't  spend  their  money,  while  the  Australian  worker 
does,  and  is,  therefore,  a  better  man  in  a  community.  This  may 
be  good  logic,  but  a  thoughtful  man  will  hardly  admit  that  a 
man  who  wastes  his  surplus  earnings  is  a  better  citizen  than 
one  who  saves  them  for  a-  rainy  day. 

While,  as  we  have  stated,  Australia  is  a  country  of  great 
natural  resources,  it  is  not  without  its  pests  and  natural  draw- 
backs. In  Queensland  there  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
acres  of  wonderfully  fertile  land  so  thickly  covered  with  prickly 
pear  (cactus)  that  it  cannot  be  utilized  for  any  purpose,  the 
expense  of  destroying  the  pest  being  greater  than  the  value  of 
the  land  when  cleared.  This  pest  is  spreading  so  rapidly  as  to 
cause  serious  alarm. 

A  scientist,  who  has  been  experimenting  for  a  number  of 
years  on  a  means  of  destroying  the  pest  by  some  sort  of  manu- 
factured gas,  has  entered  into  a  contract  with  the  Government 

"3 


to  undertake  to  clear  100,000  acres  on  condition  that  if  he  is  suc- 
cessful in  the  venture  the  land  is  to  be  deeded  to  him.  In  all  our 
travels  through  China  and  Japan  we  saw  no  land  anywhere  that 
was  covered  with  rank  growths ;  every  foot  of  tillable  ground  be- 
ing under  a  high  state  of  cultivation,  and  we  venture  the  asser- 
tion that  if  Queensland  would  open  her  doors  to  a  few  thousand 
Chinese  or  Japanese,  and  give  them  a  portion  of  this  prickly  pear 
land  for  clearing  it  they  would  find  a  way  to  annihilate  the  pest 
and  that  they  would  transform  prickly  pear  land  into  a  veritable 
garden  of  profitable  agriculture,  such  as  can  be  seen  all  over 
China  and  Japan. 

Then  there  is  the  white  ant  pest,  with  which  Queensland 
is  especially  seriously  troubled.  These  little  pests  seem  to  have 
an  economic  theory  of  their  own ;  unlike  the  labor  unionists  they 
believe  in  industry  as  the  best  means  of  advancement.  That  they 
are  industrious  and  efficient,  no  one  who  has  seen  them  at  work 
and  examined  the  results  of  their  labor  will  doubt.  They  seem  all 
to  be  "woodworkers"  by  trade,  and  bend  their  energies  on  honey- 
combing the  woodwork  in  houses,  which  it  is  the  general  custom 
to  build  upon  stilts  or  piles,  with  inverted  pans,  resembling  ordi- 
nary pie  pans,  at  the  top  ends  of  the  piles  and  under  the  sills  of 
the  house.  They  say  the  ants  won't  venture  to  travel  around 
the  edge  walls  of  these  pans,  but  confine  their  destructive  opera- 
tions to  the  piles,  which,  being  ten  to  fifteen  inches  in  diameter, 
years  of  their  labor  is  required  to  materially  injure  them.  In 
the  country  district,  these  enterprising  "Miniature  Socialists"  en- 
gage in  home  building.  In  motoring  through  woods  around 
Brisbane  we  saw  hundreds  of  these  ant  houses  or  hills,  as  they 
call  them,  some  of  which  were  fully  six  feet  high  and  five  or 
six  feet  in  diameter  at  the  base.  In  external  appearance  these 
houses  resemble  a  tapering  pile  of  baked  clay,  the  interior  of 
which  upon  close  examination  will  be  found  to  contain  millions 
of  fine  cells  which  constitute  the  dwelling  places  of  these  busy 
little  insects,  so  that  in  reality  these  odd  looking  clay  hills  are 
modern  ants'  tenement  houses. 

If  there  were  a  fair  sprinkling  of  brown  and  yellow  men, 
or  both,  throughout  Queensland,  perhaps  they  would  find  a  way 
to  eliminate  these  pests  or  turn  them  to  some  useful  purpose. 
But  of  all  the  pests  with  which  Australia  is  infected,  the  rabbit 
pest  is  the  worst.  The  country  is  literally  alive  with  rabbits, 
and  the  question  of  their  elimination  is  one  of  serious  importance 
to  the  farming  and  pastoral  interests.  They  eat  everything  in 
sight,  and  sight  everything  to  eat.  Farmers  and  pastoralists  are 
put  to  great  and  otherwise  unnecessary  expense,  in  erecting  wire 
netting  fences  around  their  lands,  and  which  extend  six  inches 

114 


to  one  foot  below  the  surface  of  the  ground.  Then  they  set 
out  to  trap,  shoot,  poison  or  otherwise  destroy  the  pests  that  are 
inside  the  fenced  lands.  Here  again  the  Chinaman  and  Japa- 
nese would  come  in  handy  in  promoting  the  general  welfare  of 
the  country,  for  they  would  soon  find  a  way  to  convert  all  the 
rabbits  into  potpie,  and  thereby  leave  the  sheep  and  cattle  free 
to  enjoy  that  which  is  their  own. 

Then,  again,  Queensland,  for  example,  is  one  of  the  finest 
cotton  growing  pieces  of  country  on  earth,  but  no  one  cares  to 
engage  in  the  industry  because  of  labor  conditions.  If,  how- 
ever, coolie  or  negro  labor  could  be  had,  the  resources  of 
Queensland  could  be  made  to  develop  by  leaps  and  bounds,  and 
which  the  narrow,  selfish,  "dog  in  the  manger"  policy  of  the 
Government,  at  the  bidding  of  the  labor  unions,  is  holding  back. 
Australians  would  have  no  vegetables  to  eat  if  it  were  not  for 
the  few  Chinamen  who  are  there,  and  were  there  before  the 
exclusion  act  was  passed,  and  wrho  are  the  principal  market  gar- 
deners of  the  country.  Australians  do  not  take  kindly  to  such 
work. 

Australia  is  pleading  and  crying  for  more  people,  any  kind 
of  people,  so  long  as  they  are  "white."  What  a  pity  we  cannot 
turn  her  way  some  portion,  at  least,, of  the  millions  of  the  low 
class  of  immigrants  that  are  constantly  flocking  to  our  shores 
from  Southern  Europe,  who  would  find  plenty  of  sympathizers 
in  Australia,  and  who  would  increase  the  popular  clamor  for 
"a  white  Australia." 

It  was  our  privilege  and  pleasure  to  have  audiences  with  a 
number  of  Chinese  and  Japanese  high  officials,  and  in  each  case 
this  question  of  discrimination  against  their  people  was  dis- 
cussed. The  keen  sense  of  humiliation  and  displeasure  with 
which  they  look  at  the  matter  was  manifest,  although  in  no  case 
was  there  any  spirit  of  retaliation  apparent. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  what  Australia  really  needs,  to  fit  in 
with  her  vast  peopleless  areas  and  her  natural  advantages,  is  five 
to  ten  millions  of  Chinese,  Japanese  and  our  American  negroes. 
If  she  would  admit  these  people  under  proper  stipulated  political 
restrictions,  they  would  be  the  means  through  which  her  unde- 
veloped resources  would  spring  forth  and  a  new  era  of  pros- 
perity would  be  developed  for  everybody.  If  she  does  not 
amend  her  present  "White  Man's  Policy"  and  give  her  yellow 
and  brown  neighbors  a  chance,  she  may  be  sure  that  some  day 
they  will  help  themselves  to  what  they  are  justly  entitled  to,  with 
something  added  for  good  measure,  and  then  Australia  will  rue 
the  day  of  her  "White  Man's  Policy"  and  her  people  will  regret 
their  stupidity. 


Let  Australia,  as  a  means  of  developing  her  resources  and 
peopling  the  country,  repeal  her  injurious  labor  laws,  and  estab- 
lish tolerable  industrial  conditions;  abandon  her  State  owner- 
ship policy;  "limber  up"  her  immigration  laws;  sell  or  lease 
her  railroads  to  private  corporations  and  grant  liberal  franchise 
for  the  building  of  new  ones,  guaranteeing  assurance  of  per- 
manent enjoyment  of  the  same,  and  she  will,  in  a  short  time, 
blossom  like  a  rose. 

New  Zealand. 

Referring  now  more  specifically  to  New  Zealand,  its  total 
area  is  104,760  squares  miles.  In  1900  its  total  population  was, 
whites  770,682,  Maoris  (natives)  39,854,  making  a  total  of  810,- 
536.  In  1912  its  white  population  was  1,052,627  and  Maoris 
49,844,  making  a  total  of  1,102,471 ;  being  an  increase  in  whites 
of  281,945,  Maoris  9,990 — together  291,935.  Its  total  debt  in 
1900  was  $241,509,363,  per  head  1313.37.  In  1912  its  total  debt 
was  $400,281,419  or  $380.27  per  head,  the  increase  per  head  in 
12  years  being  $66.90.  Its  principal  cities  are  Auckland,  Well- 
ington, Christchurch  and  Dunedin. 

Auckland,  the  most  northerly  of  New  Zealand  cities,  is  a  city 
of  hills  and  valleys,  spread  over  a  large  area,  and  including  its 
suburbs,  has  a  population  of  110,000.  It  has  a  magnificent 
harbor,  excellent  docking  facilities  and  extensive  shipping  in- 
terests. Its  business  and  public  buildings  are  of  substantial  con- 
struction and  the  city  bears  evidence  of  a  prosperous  and  intel- 
ligent upbuilding.  It  has  a  good  tramway  system,  which  is 
owned  and  operated  by  an  English  corporation,  the  fares  being 
the  same  as  in  Sydney,  a  penny  (2  cents)  for  each  section  or 
district.  There  are  no  tenement  and  very  few  two-story  houses 
in  Auckland,  nearly  all  families  being  provided  with  neat,  cozy 
houses.  Its  telephone  service  is  good,  but  its  system  of  street 
lighting  is  deficient  and  not  at  all  up  to  the  requirements  of  a 
modern  city  of  its  size. 

Wellington,  the  capital  of  the  Dominion,  is  situated  at  the 
southern  extremity  of  North  Island,  425  miles  from  Auckland 
by  rail,  and  has  a  population  of  74,000.  The  residential  part  of 
the  city  is  built  on  the  side  of  a  very  high  hill  or  mountain,  whose 
side  curves  in  the  form  of  a  horseshoe ;  its  business  section  lying 
on  practically  a  level  plateau  at  the  base.  Wellington  has  an  ex- 
cellent harbor  and  its  shipping  interests  are  extensive.  It  has 
a  good  tramway  system,  which  is  owned  and  operated  by  the 
municipality.  The  Sydney  and  Auckland  system  rates  of  fare 
prevail,  a  four-mile  ride,  for  example,  costing  4d.  (8  cents).  Its 
business  and  public  buildings  are  of  substantial  character  and 

116 


will  compare  favorably  with  those  in  modern  cities  of  similar 
size  in  the  United  States. 

Christchurch,  situated  on  the  east  coast  of  South  Island, 
175  miles  from  Wellington  by  water,  has  a  population  of  85,000. 
The  city  is  level  and  beautifully  laid  out  with  wide  streets  and 
public  grounds,  and  the  impression  the  visitor  gets  of  the  city 
is  that  it  is  an  ideal  place  in  which  to  live. 

Dunedin,  situated  on  the  east  coast  of  South  Island,  190 
miles  south  of  Christchurch,  has  a  population  of  68,000.  Its 
residential  section  is  built  on  the  side  of  a  hill  with  its  business 
section  lying  at  the  base.  It  has  a  good  harbor,  with  excellent 
docking  facilities,  and  its  shipping  interests  are  of  considerable 
importance. 

That  part  of  New  Zealand  north  of  Auckland  is  but  sparse- 
ly populated  and  is  practically  barren  rock  and  sand;  the  chief 
product  being  Kauri  gum,  which  is  dug  out  of  the  ground  where 
it  has  been  deposited  from  trees  long  since  extinct  and  shipped 
in  large  quantities  to  all  parts  of  the  world  for  use,  principally, 
in  making  varnish.  This  is  an  extensive  industry,  and  many 
firms  are  engaged  in  exportation  of  the  gum. 

Government  and  Business. 

New  Zealand  is  primarily  a  pastoral  country  and  can  never 
be  anything  else.  As  such  it  has  accomplished  marvelous  things 
in  the  development  of  its  cities  and  natural  resources.  Seventy 
years  ago  it  was  inhabited  only  by  native  Maoris,  except  a  few 
white  settlers  who  were  scattered  here  and  there  about  the 
islands.  Its  real  development  has  taken  place  within  the  past  60 
years,  although  the  cities  look  much  older.  Nature  has  not 
done  more  for  any  country  than  it  has  done  for  New  Zealand, 
which  is  the  paradise  of  cattle  and  sheep  and  once  was  a  Utopia 
for  their  owners.  But,  as  is  the'  case  everywhere,  there  has 
not  been  an  equal  distribution  of  the  wealth  of  the  country,  and 
so  the  discontented  ne'er-do-well  and  socialistic  element  set  about 
to  juggle  its  institutions  into  a  conglomerate  mass  of  State  owned 
enterprises,  which  at  present  include  banking,  fire  and  life  insur- 
ance, coal  dealing,  farming,  manufacturing,  butchering,  export- 
ing, real  estate  and  some  20  or  30  other  lines  of  commercial 
and  industrial  activities,  with  the  result  that  about  every  man 
you  meet  and  talk  with  wears  a  woe-begone  countenance  and 
expresses  his  disgust  at  the  turn  of  events.  The  very  atmos- 
phere seems  to  be  pregnant  with  depression  and  stagnation, 
such  as  prevails  in  boomed  towns  after  the  bottom  has  dropped 
out.  In  fact,  the  great  number  of  unemployed,  the  languishing 

117 


condition  of  the  industries,  the  attitude  of  the  people  and  the 
appearance  of  things  generally,  all  have  a  tendency  to  suggest  to 
the  observer  a  process  of  decadency  and  dry  rot.  As  an  illustration 
of  this,  we  said  to  a  certain  business  man,  with  whom  we  were  dis- 
cussing these  matters,  "There  doesn't  appear  to  be  any  very  rich 
men  here.  Are  there  no  millionaires  in  Auckland?"  His  reply  was, 
"Yes,  several  of  them  and  a  good  many  men  worth  upward  of  a 
million,  but  they  don't  display  their  wealth."  We  asked,  "Why  is 
that  so?"  He  replied,  "They  are  afraid  to  let  it  be  known  for 
fear  the  Government  will  find  a  way  to  take  it  away  from  them." 
This  colloquy  was  repeated  to  a  hotel-keeper,  who  said,  "Right 
he  was.  There  is  a  very  pronounced,  though  quiet  sentiment 
of  that  character  among  business  men  all  over  New  Zealand." 

A  merchant  expressed  the  belief  that  New  Zealanders  were 
seeing  the  folly  of  experimenting  with  socialistic  theories,  which, 
while  attractive  and  fascinating,  in  practice  work  only  for  evil 
and  humiliation,  and  said  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  ultimate  result 
of  the  great  Auckland  and  Wellington  strikes  of  1913  would  be 
to  change  public  sentiment  entirely  with  respect  to  legislation 
and  the  Government  policy  of  robbing  the  prudent  man  for  the 
benefit  of  the  idle  and  the  improvident. 

The  Government  of  New  Zealand  protects  its  manufacturing 
industries  by  a  heavy  tariff ;  but  it  is  quite  apparent  that  its 
limited  market  will  not  warrant  manufacturing  on  a  scale  large 
enough  to  justify  extensive  investments  in  manufacturing  en- 
terprises, either  by  the  State  or  by  individuals,  or  to  create  home 
competition  by  which  prices  may  be  kept  within  reasonable 
bounds.  Consequently,  the  masses  are  taxed  to  promote  an 
impossible  proposition.  Then,  again,  suppose  the  Government 
should  take  a  notion  to  monopolize  the  industries  of  the  country 
and  should  adopt  methods  to  drive  out  individual  competition, 
what  is  there  to  prevent  it  doing  so,  and  what  would  become  of 
the  private  capital  invested  in  such  industries?  This  is  quite 
possible  in  a  socialistic  community. 

Government  Lands. 

One  of  the  enticing  theories  of  the  socialistic  party  is  to  do 
away  with  private  ownership  of  land,  and  as  rapidly  as  it  can, 
the  Government  is  resuming  all  the  large  estates;  consequently 
private  owners  of  large  tracts  of  land  have  a  strong  feeling  of 
insecurity  in  their  possessions,  for  whenever  the  Government 
wants  to  resume  their  lands  it  will  do  so.  Hence,  no  man  will 
buy  land  in  the  hope  of  building  up  a  home  for  himself  in  his 
old  age  and  a  heritage  for  his  children;  the  ultimate  goal  to 

118 


which  New  Zealand  at  present  aspires  being  that  the  State  shall 
be  the  only  freeholder.  To  that  end  a  graduated  land  tax  so 
burdens  the  larger  land  holders  that  they  are  glad  to  sell  their 
lands  to  the  State.  Thus  stock  raising  on  a  large  scale  is  gradu- 
ally drawing  to  an  end.  Lands  bought  by  the  State  will  not  be 
resold  but  will  be  leased  in  small  parcels,  on  conditions  similar 
to  those  mentioned  elsewhere  in  this  report  as  prevailing  in 
Australia,  and  which  are  of  such  a  restrictive  and  arbitrary 
character  as  to  destroy  all  ambition  of  the  tenant  to  improve  the 
land  he  occupies  or  do  more  than,  from  year  to  year,  sap  it  of 
its  virtue.  He  feels  that  he  has  been  victimized ;  that  the  system 
under  which  he  labors  forbids  that  he  shall  possess  more  than 
he  consumes ;  that  all  his  excess  production  belongs  to  the  public ; 
that  he  has  surrendered  his  individuality  to  the  State  and  is  no 
longer  a  free  agent,  but  simply  a  single  equal  unit  among  the 
industrious  and  the  idle;  the  thoughtful  and  indifferent;  the 
provident  and  the  spendthrift;  the  honorable  and  the  dishonor- 
able; the  drunkard  and  the  temperate;  the  sane  and  the  insane; 
the  soil-tiller  and  office-holder;  the  preacher  and  the  doctor; 
the  lawyer  and  the  barmaid;  the  tax  gatherer  and  the  tax 
payer,  and  all  else  that  goes  to  make  up  the  activities  of  life, 
and  beyond  all  this  he  sees  for  the  future  only  a  paradise  for 
paupers  and  a  premium  on  idleness. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  not  many  years  ago  a  certain 
individual  gathered  together  a  large  number  of  people  in 
Australasia  who  were  not  satisfied  with  the  progress  being  made 
along  the  lines  of  their  socialistic  ideals,  and  hied  them  off  to  a 
place  by  themselves,  in  Paraguay,  which  was  the  proper  thing 
to  do,  but  before  they  reached  the  "promised  land"  dissensions 
arose  because  some  had  provided  themselves  with  crackers  and 
other  things  which  they  refused  to  assign  to  the  family  kettle 
but  kept  for  their  own  consumption.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  the 
enterprise  soon  fell  to  pieces  and  that  the  prime  mover  in  the 
scheme  is  now  said  to  be  back  in  Auckland,  connected  with  a 
newspaper  of  that  city. 

Government  Railways. 

There  are  about  2000  miles  of  railroad  in  New  Zealand, 
owned  and  operated  by  the  Government,  the  gauge  of  which  is 
3  feet  6  inches.  The  road-beds  are  good  and  the  equipment  and 
service,  while  primitive  and  inefficient  when  compared  with  rail- 
roads in  the  United  States,  are  all  that  could  reasonably  be  ex- 
pected when  the  differences  in  conditions  are  considered.  The 
average  rate  of  fare,  first  class,  is  3^2  cents  per  mile,  sleeping 
car  rates  about  the  same  as  in  the  United  States.  Not  all  New 

119 


Zealanders  are  proud  of  their  railroads;  though  some  office- 
holders are  especially  boastful  of  them  and  claim  that  they  are 
a  paying  investment.  Not  having  any  statistics  at  hand  we  can 
neither  verify  nor  refute  the  claim.  The  roads  seem  to  be 
fairly  well  managed  and  operated,  considering  all  the  circum- 
stances relating  to  their  existence,  and  it  would  be  unfair  to 
criticize  adversely,  as  some  have  done,  the  railroads  of  New 
Zealand  by  comparing  them  with  roads  in  more  thickly  populated 
countries. 

Industrial  Conditions  in  New  Zealand. 

With  respect  to  industrial  conditions  in  New  Zealand.  In 
addition  to  the  references  and  quotations  from  publications  which 
appear  earlier  in  this  report,  under  the  caption  "Australasia,"  a 
brief  history  of  the  great  general  strike  which  took  place  in  the 
fall  of  1913,  which  we  obtained  from  an  authoritative  source,  will 
be  of  interest.  This  strike  was  launched  October  2Oth,  at  Hunt- 
ly,  by  the  coal  miners,  who  struck  in  violation  of  agreement  and 
contrary  to  law,  because  the  mine  operators  discharged  16  men 
whom  they  claimed  they  had  no  work  for  on  account  of  dull 
trade.  The  Miners'  Union  was  registered  under  the  Arbitra- 
tion and  Conciliation  Act,  and,  therefore,  for  it  to  peremptorily 
strike  was  a  direct  violation  of  the  law.  Moreover,  after  a 
similar  trouble  a  year  before,  work  was  resumed  under  an  agree- 
ment with  the  company  in  which  the  union  officials  agreed  to  do 
all  in  their  power  to  prevent  any  strikes  in  future,  and  not  to 
promote  any  strike  until  a  secret  ballot  had  been  taken,  as  pro- 
vided by  law,  and  consent  obtained  of  two-thirds  of  the  mem- 
bers, but  no  secret  ballot  was  taken  before  this  strike  was  de- 
clared. The  United  Federation  of  Labor  supported  the  action 
of  the  union  leaders  in  declaring  the  strike,  on  the  pretence  that 
the  company  had  discharged  the  men  because  they  were  active 
in  union  matters.  October  22d  the  waterside  workers  of  Well- 
ing struck  against  a  local  ship  company,  and  there  was  trouble 
brewing  at  several  other  places  in  the  Dominion.  The  strike 
of  the  waterside  workers  at  Auckland  was  called  Oct.  29th, 
the  men  refusing  to  handle  coal  brought  to  that  port  by  sea. 
When  this  strike  had  been  in  progress  a  few  days,  the  Fed- 
eration of  Labor  called  a  general  strike  of  waterside  workers, 
carters,  seamen  and  15  or  20  other  unions,  the  idea  being  to 
so  paralyze  the  industries  of  the  country  as  to  force  recog- 
nition of  union  supremacy  in  all  industrial  matters.  When  the 
strike  was  at  its  height  there  were  about  7000  men  involved  in 
Auckland  alone,  and  a  condition  of  chaos  prevailed  in  all 
parts  of  the  Dominion,  the  result  being,  the  complete  paraly- 

I2O 


zation  of  shipping  and  the  holding  up  of  all  vessels  for  a  period 
of  about  two  weeks.  The  Government  was  helpless,  though  ap- 
parently witling  to  maintain  order  and  prevent  destruction  of 
property,  and  the  local  police  were  entirely  inadequate  to  cope 
with  the  situation  in  any  of  the  affected  districts. 

Therefore,  realizing  that  the  country  was  facing  a  condition 
of  anarchy,  the  authorities  issued  a  general  call  for  volunteers, 
mounted  and  unmounted,  to  be  sworn  in  as  special  constabulary 
to  re-establish  normal  conditions.  The  call  was  promptly  and 
generously  answered  and  thousands  of  men  from  the  cities  and 
the  country  districts  volunteered  their  services  and  were  mus- 
tered into  service.  About  3,200  volunteers  were  assigned  to  duty 
in  Auckland,  which  had  then  become  the  pivotal  point  in  the 
industrial  war  that  had  seized  the  "Land  of  No  Strikes."  About 
one-half  of  these  volunteers  were  mounted  men  from  the  coun- 
try districts  who  provided  their  own  horses.  They  were  fur- 
nished with  axe-helves  for  batons  and  assigned  to  duty  at  the 
wharfs  and  other  places  where  trouble  was  on  or  likely  to  occur. 
Some  of  the  mounted  "specials,"  together  with  a  large  number 
of  men  who  had  been  willing  but  afraid  to  work,  started  in  to 
discharge  and  load  the  many  ocean  liners  that  were  held  up  in 
the  harbor,  while  others  acted  in  the  capacity  of  carters,  and, 
under  the  strong  protection  of  the  mounted  farmer  boys,  de- 
livered freight  to  and  from  the  ships  and  warehouses.  This 
broke  the  backbone  of  the  strike,  which  after  a  duration  of 
eight  weeks  was  called  off  and  law  and  order  was  then  restored. 

Next  to  Auckland,  Wellington  was  the  more  warlike  port, 
and  the  situation  there  was  handled  the  same  as  in  Auckland, 
the  authorities  of  the  two  cities  working  in  co-operation  and 
harmony.  The  tramway  system  at  Auckland  was  tied  up  for 
1 8  days,  ostensibly  for  want  of  coal,  but  in  reality  as  a  matter 
of  diplomacy. 

The  losses  sustained  by  all  classes,  through  this  industrial 
upheaval,  were  very  heavy,  the  total  loss  to  the  country  being 
estimated  at  from  $6,000,000  to  $8,000,000.  But  there  is  a 
strong  feeling  among  the  business  and  thoughtful  men  generally, 
that  the  loss,  however  great,  will  prove  a  blessing  in  disguise,  and 
that  it  will  prove  to  be  the  beginning  of  the  end  of  socialistic 
foolishness  in  New  Zealand,  evidence  of  which  is  already  apparent, 
and  is  mildly  expressed  in  the  following  from  the  Melbourne 
Age  of  April  3Oth: 

RESULT  OF  MAYORAL  ELECTION. 

In  the  Wellington  mayoral  election,  which  was  held  today,  J.  P. 
Luke,  sitting  mayor,  received  11,501  votes,  D.  Maclaren  (United  Labor 
Party),  4,339  votes;  J.  Glover  (Social  Democrat),  who  contested  the 

121 


seat  in  place  of  J.  Holland,  who  is  now  undergoing  a  sentence  for  sedi- 
tion in  connection  with  the  recent  strike  of  waterside  workers,  4,337 
votes. 

The  Honorable  J.  MacGreegor,  one  of  the  sponsors  for  the 
New  Zealand  Arbitration  Act,  has  written  a  number  of  "open" 
letters  to  the  Dominion  Prime  Minister,  Mr.  Massey,  leader  of 
the  Liberal  Party,  on  the  failure  of  the  law  to  achieve  industrial 
peace,  and  as  one  of  them,  in  particular,  characterizes  the 
effectiveness  of  the  law  as  measured  by  its  practical  operation, 
we  take  the  liberty  to  quote  from  it  the  following : 

You  have,  I  have  no  doubt,  some  recollection  of  that  remarkable 
deputation  that  waited  upon  you  in  February  last  to  submit  you  certain 
resolutions  that  had  been  passed  by  the  "Syndicalist  Socialist  Conference," 
surely  the  most  arrogant  and  insolent  deputation  that  was  ever  granted 
an  audience  by  a  Prime  Minister.  I  am  going  to  endeavor  to  show  with 
regard  to  one  of  those  resolutions,  at  any  rate,  that  due  consideration 
would  mean  treating  with  contempt.  As  you  are  aware,  no  union  can 
have  any  status  under  the  Act,  unless  it  is  registered  as  an  "industrial 
union";  but  provision  is  made  for  enabling  a  union  to  get  its  registration 
cancelled  and  so  surrender  the  benefits  and  escape  the  penalties  of  the 
Act.  In  this  way  a  union  is  enabled  to  indulge  with  impunity  in  the 
luxury  of  a  strike.  Now,  the  Waihi  union  cancelled  its  registration. 
Thereupon  a  number  of  the  members  of  the  union  who  believed  in  the 
arbitration  system  had  seceded,  formed  a  new  union,  and  got  it  regis- 
tered. This  was  made  the  pretext  for  the  Waihi  strike  that  proved  so 
disastrous  to  all  concerned.  We  are  not  in  a  position  to  understand 
the  nature  of  the  demand  made  by  the  deputation :  that  the  Act  should 
be  so  altered  that  when  a  registered  union  cancels  its  registration  in 
order  to  be  free  to  strike,  as  the  Waihi  union  did,  no  other  union  shall 
be  allowed  registration  in  its  place :  that  an  Act  intended  to  prevent 
strikes  should  be  so  altered  as  to  facilitate  and  encourage  strikes,  by 
forbidding  registration,  in  such  circumstances,  of  unions  that  are  op- 
posed to  strikes.  It  is  surely  difficult  to  conceive  greater  impudence  that 
is  implied  in  the  submitting  of  such  a  demand  to  the  Prime  Minister, 
by  a  deputation  comprising  several  of  those  agitators  who  were  'largely 
responsible  for  the  worst  strike  New  Zealand  ever  saw.  And  now  we 
find  the  demand  made  by  this  deputation  suggested  as  one  of  the 
"objects"  of  the  proposed  United  Federation  of  Labor  that  is  to  re- 
generate our  effete  social  and  industrial  systems.  But  the  same  Act 
that  forbids  a  registered  union  to  strike  gives  it  the  right  to  cancel  its 
registration  in  order  to  strike.  The  legal  position,  therefore,  seems  to 
be  that,  by  registering  under  the  Act,  a  union  surrenders  the  right  to 
strike,  with  the  reservation  of  the  power  to  resume  that  right  at  any 
time.  The  first  thing  that  strikes  an  ordinary  man  with  regard  to 
such  a  provision  in  an  Act  for  the  prevention  of  strikes  is,  that  it  must 
tend  to  render  the  Act  futile,  and  futile  it  certainly  has  proved. 

In  your  speech  at  Dunedin  a  few  days  ago  you  referred  with  a 
feeling  of  satisfaction  to  the  immunity  from  strikes  existing  at  the  time, 
and  you  were  no  doubt  entitled  to  do  so,  for  the  improvement  is  no 
doubt  largely  attributable  to  the  firmness  shown  by  the  Government  in 
its  administration  of  the  ordinary  law  in  the  case  of  Waihi;  but  it  was 
also  largely  due  to  two  other  facts — namely,  that  the  employers — and 
especially  the  farmers — have  at  last  been  roused  to  combine  and  organ- 
ize for  the  protection  of  the  community  against  the  intolerable  tyranny 
and  arrogance  of  organized  labor.  There  are  embodied  in  our  Act  three 
principles  which,  under  the  manipulations  of  the  kind  of  unions  that  the 

122 


Act  has  created  and  fostered,  inevitably  render  it  practically  useless  as 
a  means  of  preventing  strikes.  Two  of  those  principles  have  been  in- 
troduced at  different  times  since  1894,  no  doubt  at  the  instance  of  the 
unions,  and  all  that  is  necessary  to  perfect  it  as  one  instrument  far 
enabling  the  Federationists  to  attain  their  ends  is  to  comply  with  the 
demand  now  made  for  an  amendment  to  prevent  the  creation  of  what 
they  call  "scab  unions." 

The  three  principles  referred  to  are  found  in  the  following  pro- 
visions:  First,  that  which  forbids  the  registration  of  a  second  union 
of  any  trade  in  the  same  locality;  second,  that  which  authorized  the 
granting  of  preference  to  unionists,  by  which  workers  who  are  opposed 
to  strikes  may  be  coerced  into  joining  a  union  whose  main  reliance  is 
upon  the  strike;  and  third,  that  which  allows  a  union  to  cancel  its 
registration  at  any  time  in  order  to  strike.  *  *  * 

I  implore  you  to  scrutinize  closely  any  proposals  for  legislation 
dealing  with  such  industries,  and  to  bear  in  mind  that  nothing  is  easier 
than  to  cause  irreparable  injury  to  an  industry  by  ill-considered  legisla- 
tion. *  *  *  There  must  be  a  limit  to  legislation  for  the  propitiation  of 
labor,  and  that  this  limit  seems  to  have  been  reached  in  this  country  is 
indicated  by  the  fact  that  every  effort  in  that  direction  not  only  fails 
to  produce  the  desired  effect,  but,  instead,  simply  increased  the  cost  ^of 
living.  The  labor  leaders  know  this,  and  they  rejoice  at  every  legislative 
failure  because  each  one  as  it  occurs  plays  into  their  hands  by  furnish- 
ing them  new  arguments  in  favor  of  their  contention  that  there  is  no 
hope  for  the  worker  except  in  the  overthrow  of  the  whole  industrial  and 
social  system.  The  Industrial  Arbitration  Act  is,  itself,  the  most  com- 
plete failure  of  all  our  legislative  experiments,  and  the  labor  leaders 
simply  tolerate  it  because  it  serves  their  purposes;  the  amendments  I 
suggest  would  go  far  to  thwart  thejr  designs. 

On  April  3,  1914,  the  Honorable  F.  M.  B.  Fisher,  "Liberal" 
Minister  of  Customs,  addressed  a  public  meeting  at  Wellington, 
and  from  whose  address  quotations  appear  elsewhere  in  this 
report,  at  which  meeting  there  was  a  disturbing  element  evidently 
bent  on  breaking  up  the  meeting.  After  a  number  of  interrup- 
tions and  noisy  demonstrations,  the  speaker  said :  "The  meeting 
suggests  to  me  an  interesting  electoral  reform,  and  that  is  to 
disfranchise  every  man  who  attempts  to  break  up  a  public  meet- 
ing *  *  *  they  would  thus  prevent  the  people  who  do  not  re- 
spect the  laws  from  making  them.  These  men  must  not  get  the 
idea  into  their  heads  that  they  can  frighten  or  terrorize  the  Gov- 
ernment." 

The  following  are  extracts  from  the  annual  report  of  the 
Wellington  Employers'  Association,  adopted  September  19,  1913: 

The  past  twelve  months  have  been  fraught  with  the  worst  form  of 
labour  unrest  the  Dominion  has  experienced  since  the  Arbitration  Act 
came  into  operation.  Of  chief  importance  has  been  the  Waihi  strike, 
which  was  brought  about  by  members  of  the  New  Zealand  Federation  of 
Labour,  in  an  endeavor  to  coerce  the  engine-drivers  at  Waihi  into  joining 
their  organization.  *  *  * 

The  busy  season  of  the  Freezing  Companies  was  selected  by  the 
slaughtermen  of  the  Dominion  for  the  making  of  an  unreasonable  de- 
mand of  an  increase  of  5s.  per  100  in  the  rate  for  sheep-killing.  This 
demand  was  made  notwithstanding  the  definite  arrangement  made  at  the 
preceding  conference  held  in  1910  between  the  Dominion  employers  and 

123 


the  representatives  of  the  Slaughtermen's  Federation  that  the  settlement 
then  arrived  at  was  for  a  period  of  five  years.  *  *  * 

In  common  with  other  industrial  world  centres,  New  Zealand  is 
experiencing  a  full  share  of  the  troubles  brought  about  by  what  your 
Committee  considers  are  prevalent  mistaken  ideas  in  the  minds  of  some 
workers  that  they  are  not  receiving  adequate  pay  for  services  rendered, 
and  that  their  interests  and  those  of  their  employers  are  antagonistic. 
The  inculcation  of  these  beliefs  is  directly  due  to  the  advocacy  of  a 
considerable  section  of  the  workers'  leaders,  who  are  creating  a  grave 
and  hurtful  spirit  in  the  minds  of  many  workers  that  they  are  not  re- 
ceiving fair  treatment  from  their  employers.  The  resulting  dissatisfac- 
tion is  showing,  not  only  in  decreasing  efficiency  in  the  work  in  hand, 
but  also  in  the  characters  of  the  workers.  The  absence  of  the  right 
spirit  in  many  employees  is  plainly  apparent,  and  this  must  inevitably 
injuriously  affect  their  moral  fibre  and  general  character  and  efficiency. 
The  present  attitude  of  workers  towards  their  work  is  a  large  factor  in 
creating  a  disinclination  on  the  part  of  those  with  capital  to  venture  into 
any  new  industry.  The  open  advocacy  of  lawlessness  and  disregard  of 
both  legal  and  moral  obligations  by  some  leaders  is  doing  untold  harm 
in  this  Dominion. 

With  respect  to  industrial  legislation,  employers  were  fortunately 
practically  free  from  the  necessity  for  considering  amendments  or  new 
legislation,  owing  chiefly,  it  is  believed,  to  the  existence  of  a  new  Parlia- 
ment, and  the  taking  over  of  the  reins  of  government  by  Mr.  Massey 
and  his  party.  It  is  hoped  that  the  new  Government  will  recognize  that 
the  trades  and  industries  of  the  Dominion  have  already  been  subjected 
to  more  restrictive  legislation  than  is  necessary,  and  will  grant  a  time 
of  peace. 

The  operation  of  the  Shops  anjl  Offices  Act  is  continuing  to  harass 
and  interfere  with  the  business  of  shopkeepers,  and  is  preventing  them 
from  coping  with  the  unavoidable  exigencies  of  their  business.  The 
shopkeepers  of  the  city  are  looking  forward  to  securing,  through  the 
Minister  of  Labour  and  Parliament,  some  relief  from  many  of  the  un- 
necessary restrictions  they  are  labouring  under. 

As  time  goes  on,  the  greater  need  arises  for  securing  combined  and 
united  action  on  the  part  of  employers  on  all  matters  affecting  the 
employing  class,  and  the  usefulness  and  value  of  the  Federation  and 
affiliated  Associations  is  now  being  more  fully  recognized  and  appre- 
ciated by  employers.  It  is  anticipated  the  Federation  will  be  called  upon 
at  its  next  annual  meeting  to  formulate  a  definite  plan  for  organization 
and  the  creation  of  a  Defence  Fund. 

The  experiences  of  recent  years  clearly  demonstrate  that  employers' 
interests  can  best  be  protected  and  advanced  by  their  having  a  Central 
Committee,  and  officers  who  can  speak  in  the  united  name  of  the 
employers  of  the  Dominion. 

The  following  synopsis  of  procedure  in  settlement  of  a  trade 
dispute  under  the  New  Zealand  Industrial  Conciliation  and  Arbi- 
tration Act,  as  amended  in  1911,  will  in  this  connection  serve  a 
useful  purpose: 

It  is  optional  for  Employers'  or  Workers'  Unions  to  register  as 
Industrial  Unions  under  the  Act. 

When  alterations  in  hours,  wages  and  working  conditions  are 
sought  by  either  side  the  initial  step  is  the  service  of  the  claims  to  be 
made.  This  means  the  creation  of  the  "dispite,"  a  necessary  preliminary 
to  the  legal  proceedings  which  follow.  It  has  to  be  noted  that  a  Workers' 
Union  may  create  a  dispute  with  individual  employers  who  have  no  union, 
but  Employers'  Unions  cannot  seek  an  award  in  any  trade  unless  the 

124 


workers  have  registered  a  union  in  connection  with  it.  Thus,  the  work- 
ers have  the  option  of  working  under  an  Arbitration  Court  award  or 
not,  but  the  employers  have  no  alternative  if  the  workers  desire  to  bind 
them  by  an  award.  When  an  award  is  made  by  the  Court  it  remains 
binding  upon  the  employers  until  either  side  chooses  to  ask  for  another 
award  or  the  union  cancels  its  registration  under  the  Act. 

The  application  is  to  the  Conciliation  Commissioner.  There  are 
three  of  these  appointed  by  the  Government  at  $2,500  a  year  each  and 
travelling  allowances  with  jurisdiction  over  stated  portions  of  the  Do- 
main. Their  chief  duty  is  to  endeavor  to  induce  the  parties  to  a  dispute 
to  agree  upon  terms  of  settlement.  Each  employer  named  in  the  list  is  a 

earty  to  the  dispute  and  has  the  right  to  appear  in  person  or  by  agent, 
sually  the  secretary  of  the  local  Employers'  Association  appears  as 
agent  for  all  the  employers.  A  solicitor  (practicing  lawyer)  cannot 
appear  in  these  cases  unless  all  parties  consent.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
legal  gentlemen  never  have  taken  part  in  these  trade  disputes. 

The  Conciliation  Commissioners  with  the  Assessors  named  at  the 
end  of  the  attached  application  and  an  equal  number  of  Assessors  whom 
the  employers  are  required  to  name  form  a  Conciliation  Council  whose 
duties  are,  firstly : 

(i)  To  endeavor  to  bring  about  an  amicable  settlement  of  the 
dispute  by  conference.  Prior  to  consideration  of  the  dispute  before  the 
Council  the  respondents  have  the  right  to  submit  the  terms  and  conditions 
they  wish  to  secure.  This  they  do  by  filing  "counter-proposals." 

Failing  a  settlement  by  conference  the  Council  endeavors  to  unani- 
mously agree  upon  terms  which  it  can  recommend  the  parties  to  adopt 
in  settlement  of  the  dispute.  It  is  important  'to  note  that  these  recom- 
mendations must  be  unanimously  agreed  upon  and  that  they  are  not 
settled  by  the  majority  vote. 

If  the  Council  induce  the  parties  to  agree  upon  some  points  such 
partial  agreement  is  reported  to  the  Arbitration  Court,  and  the  other 
matters  in  dispute  are  referred  to  the  Court  for  settlement. 

Should  a  recommendation  on  all  points  in  dispute  be  made  by  the 
Council,  30  days  are  given  dissatisfied  parties  within  which  they  may 
lodge  objection.  If  no  objection  is  lodged  the  recommendations  come 
into  force  in  the  same  way  as  an  industrial  agreement  would  if  signed 
by  the  parties. 

Should  an  objection  be  filed  then  the  dispute  is  referred  by  the 
Clerk  of  Awards  to  the  Arbitration  Court. 

The  Court  is  constituted  of  a  Judge  who  has  the  same  status  as  a 
Judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  (a  life  appointment)  and  one  representa- 
tive each  for  the  employers  and  workers,  appointed  every  three  years  by 
the  Industrial  Unions  of  Employers  and  Workers,  respectively.  They 
receive  £500  a  year  and  travelling  allowances. 

This  Court  sits  every  three  months  in  the  various  centres  for  the 
hearing  of  local  disputes.  The  area  affected  by  awards  is  generally 
stated  in  them.  In  the  carpenters'  case  under  review  it  was  limited 
to  50  miles  from  Wellington  City. 

When  a  case  is  called  on  by  the  Court  the  ordinary  procedure  of 
the  law  Courts  is  generally  though  not  rigidly  adhered  to.  After  hearing 
arguments  and  evidence  from  both  sides  the  Court  reserves  its  decision 
and  ultimately  makes  an  award  which  is  a  final  settlement  of  the  matters 
in  dispute  for  the  period  of  time  (not  exceeding  three  years)  fixed  by 
the  Court. 

There  are  20  secretaries  of  Labor  Unions  in  Wellington,  drawing 
salaries  aggregating,  at  a  low  estimate,  $15,000  a  year,  the  estimate  for 
the  Dominion  being  $75,000  a  year  for  salaries  of  Union  secretaries, 
alone,  in  addition  to  which  a  very  large  sum  is  expended  in  salaries  and 
expenses  of  other  Labor  officials  and  agitators,  with  which  this  wonderful 
little  country  is  abundantly  supplied. 

125 


At  the  hotel  at  which  we  stopped  the  following  notice  was 
posted  in  each  room : 

Owing  to  New  Zealand  Labor  laws  visitors  are  particularly  re- 
quested to  observe  punctuality  at  all  meals. 

One  of  your  Commissioners  stepped  into  a  cobbler's  shop 
and  waited  20  minutes  while  the  cobbler  built  up  the  heels  of 
his  shoes.  He  asked  the  cobbler  if  he  belonged  to  the  cobblers' 
union.  He  said,  "No,  I  would  not  let  those  fellows  control  me." 
Your  Commissioner  said,  "Why  not?  They  have  succeeded  in 
having  wages  raised,  haven't  they?"  "Yes,"  he  said,  "  they  have 
and  the  more  they  succeed  at  it  the  worse  they  are  off,  for  they 
can't  buy  as  much  with  their  high  wages  as  they  could  when  they 
got  less,  and  besides,  they  are  not  nearly  as  well  satisfied  as  they 
were  then  and  everybody  else  is  grumbling  about  conditions, 
which  aint  like  they  used  to  be  by  a  good  deal." 

The  following  is  a  reproduction  of  a  schedule  of  wages  and 
working  conditions  which  were  received  by  an  employer  at  Auck- 
land while  we  were  there  and  was  handed  to  us  for  use  in  con- 
nection with  this  report. 


Amalgamated  Society  of  Engineers. 


AUCKLAND  BRANCH 


Proposed  Working  Conditions  for  Northern  Industrial  District. 

I.— Hours  of  Work. 

Forty-four  hours   shall   constitute   a  week's   work.    Eight  hours  ' 
shall  be  worked  on   each  working  day  except   Saturday,  upon  which 
day  four  hours  shall  be  worked.     Starting  time  to  be  at  7.30  a.m.  and 
stopping  time  at  5  p.m. 

II. — Overtime. 

(a)  All  time  worked  in  excess  of  that  mentioned  in  Clause  I.  hereof 
to  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  time  and  a-half  until   10  o'clock 
p.m.,  and  from  thence  to  the  starting  of  the  ordinary  day  shift 
next  morning,  double  time  rates  to  be  paid,  and  each  day  to 
stand  by  itself. 

(b)  Systematic   overtime   shall  not   be   allowed.     Overtime   worked 
for  more  than   12  hours  in  any  two  consecutive  weeks  to  be 
deemed  systematic. 

III.— Holidays  and  Sunday  Work. 

Work  done  upon  New  Year's  Day,  Good  Friday,  Easter  Mon- 
day, Anniversary  Day,  Labour  Day,  Christmas  Day,  Boxing  Day  or 
Sunday,  double  time  rates  to  be  paid  for  working  the  same  number 
of  hours  of  an  ordinary  day.  Any  time  worked  before  7.30  a.m.  or 

126 


after  5  p.m.  shall  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  time  and  a-half  in  addi- 
tion. An  employee  called  to  work  after  usual  working  hours  shall 
receive  a  minimum  payment  equivalent  to  four  hours'  work. 

IV.— Night  Shifts. 

(a)  Workers  engaged  upon  night  shifts  shall  be  paid  50  per  cent, 
extra.     Three  consecutive  nights  to  be  worked  before  it  can  be 
recognized  as  a  night  shift,  otherwise  overtime  rates,  as  men- 
tioned in  Clause  II.  hereof,  to  be  paid. 

(b)  A  night  shift  shall  mean  eight  hours  worked  between  ordinary 
stopping  time  in  the  evening  and  starting  time  next  morning. 

(c)  Only  one  shift  in  the  24  hours  to  be  regarded  as  a  day  shift, 
namely,    eight    hours   worked    between    ordinary   starting    time 
in  the  morning  and  stopping  time  in  the  evening. 

(d)  Any    employee    having   worked    all    night    and    being    required 
to  continue  working  on  into  .the  next  day,  the  double  time  rate 
to  be  paid  for  all  such  time  worked. 

V.— Outside  Work. 

(a)  A   worker   employed    outside    of   the    employer's   establishment 
shall  'be  paid  one  shilling  per  day  extra,  or  for  any  portion  of 
a  day. 

(b)  All  employees  required  to  travel  to  a  job  during  working  hours 
shall  be  paid  for  such  hours  at  ordinary  rates,  also   for  such 
ordinary  working  hours  that  they  may  be  kept  waiting  after 
arrival  at  the  job. 

(c)  All  employees  required  to  travel   outside  of  ordinary  working 
hours  shall  be  paid  for  the  actual  time  of  travelling,  provided 
that  the  maximum  number  of  hours  on  each  outward  or  home- 
ward journey  to  be  so  paid  shall  not  exceed  twelve. 

(d)  Employees  shall  be  paid  their  fares  both  ways  and  reasonable 
travelling  expenses,  and  if  required  to  stay  away  from  home, 
their  board  and  lodging  at  current  rates. 

(e)  Employees  travelling  by  boat  shall,  if  travelling  by  coastal  boat, 
be   allowed  saloon  fare;   and  if  travelling  by  inter-State  boat, 
second-class    fare,    except    when    such    represents    steerage,    in 
which  case  saloon  fare  shall  be  allowed. 

(f)  When  travelling  at  night  time  by  train,  if  at  any  time  second- 
class  sleeping  accommodation  is  provided,  the   employer  shall 
allow   second-class    sleeping   berth    ticket.      Patternmakers,    for 
work  done  outside  the  employer's  establishment,  shall  receive 
i/-  per  day  extra. 

(g)  Any  employee  sent  out  to  work  and  placed  in  charge  of  one  or 
more  workmen,  shall  receive  3/-  per  day  extra. 


VI. — Dirt  Money. 

(a)  Ships:    Any   journeyman    or    apprentice    who    is    engaged   upon 
ship  repair  work  shall  receive  i/-  per  day  extra  or  for  any  por- 
tion of  a  day. 

(b)  Ashore:  Journeymen  and  apprentices  employed  on  dirty  repair 
work,  such  as  stripping  old  machinery  or  removal  of  same,  or 
inside  smoke   boxes   or   through    manholes    of  boilers   or   con- 
densers, machinery  connected  with  freezing  works,  or  all  run- 
ning machinery,  shall  receive  i/-  per  day  extra  or  for  any  por- 
tion of  a  day,  in  addition  to  other  allowances. 

127 


5.  d. 

s. 

d. 

8 

13 

4 

8 

13 

4 

8 

13 

4 

8 

13 

4 

8 

13 

4 

8 

13 

4 

8 

13 

4 

8 

13 

4 

8 

13 

4 

8 

13 

4 

8 

13 

4 

8 

13 

4 

8 

13 

4 

8^ 

!  •  13 

8 

ii 


VII.— Wages. 

The  minimum  wage  for  the  following  classes  of  workmen 
shall  be:—  Per  hour.  Per  day. 

Fitters 

Turners 

Armature    winders 

Milling  machinists       .. 

Motor   mechanics 

Brassfinishers     .. 

Die  sinkers   and   tool  makers 

Universal    grinders 

Blacksmiths        ..          ..          ..          . .    /     .. 

Coppersmiths 

Oliver    smiths 

Stampers  and  drop  hammer  forgers 

Planers,  shapers,  slotters  and  borers 

Patternmakers   .. 

Drillers,    screwers    and    other    machinists 

not  otherwise  mentioned 
Leading  hands  to  receive  25  per  cent,  in  addition  to  above  rates. 
All  wages  to  be  paid  weekly,  and  no  back  time  kept.     Wages  to 
be  paid  in  employer's  time. 

Definition  of  a  Motor  Mechanic 

A  chauffeur  shall  not  be  deemed  a  motor  mechanic.  A  motor 
mechanic  is  a  workman  engaged  upon  the  repair  or  construction  of 
cars,  or  may  be  employed  upon  the  upkeep  of  the  plant  or  machinery. 

VIII.— -Piecework. 

(a)  Piecework,   taskwork   or  premium   bonus    system    shall   not   be 
engaged  upon  under  any  conditions  whatsoever. 

(b)  No  workmen  to  be  employed  upon  two  machines  at  the  same 
time. 

IX. — Termination  of  Engagements. 

(a)  Upon  the  termination  of  an  engagement  either  on  the  part  of 
the  employer  or  workman,  the  wages  of  such  worker  shall  be 
paid  the  same  evening  or  immediately  after  the  ordinary  start- 
ing time  next  morning.  Failing  such  the  worker  shall  be  paid 
at  ordinary  rates  for  all  such  time  that  he  is  kept  waiting. 

X. — Apprentices. 

(a)  An  employer  taking  an  apprentice  to  learn  the  trade  shall  be 
deemed  to  undertake  the  duty  which  he  agrees  to  perform  as  a 
duty  enforceable  under  this  Award,  and  shall  pay  such  appren- 
tice not  less  than  the  under-mentioned  rates  of  wages: — 

s.      d. 
First  year,  per  week  . .         . .         . .         . .         . .       10 

Second  year,  per  week          . .         . .  . .       15 

Third  year,  per  week..         ..         ..         ..         ..       20 

Fourth  year,  per  week         . .         . .         . .         . .       30 

Fifth  year,  per  week  . .         . .         . .         . .         . .       40 

(b)  At  the  expiration  of  the  apprenticeship  he  shall  receive  not  less 
than  the  minimum  rate  as  paid  to  journeymen. 

(c)  Boys  shall  be  apprenticed  to  any  of  the  following  branches  of 
the  trade:  Fitters,  Turners,  Electrical  Fitters,  Armature  Wind- 
ers, Toolmakers,  Die  Sinkers,  Motor  Mechanics,  Spring  Smiths, 
Blacksmiths,      Coppersmiths,      Cliver      Smiths,      Brassfinishers, 
Milling    Machinists,   Universal    Grinders,   Patternmakers,    Drop 
Hammer  Forgers,  Planers,  Shapers,  Slotters  and  Borers. 

128 


(d)  The  period   of   apprenticeship    shall   be    for    five   years,   and   all 
apprenticeships   shall   be   by   indenture.     A   copy   of   the   inden- 
ture shall  be  registered  with  the   Chief  Industrial  Registrar,  or 
Local  Inspector  of  Factories,  and  a  copy  shall  be  held  by  the 
lawful  guardians  of  such  apprentice,  and  no  apprentice  shall  be 
more  than  18  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  the  execution  of  the 
indenture.     Three  months  probation   shall  be  allowed  the  first 
employer  of  any  apprentice  to  determine  his  fitness,  such  three 
months    to    be    included    in    the    period    of    apprenticeship.      An 
apprentice  shall  be  kept  constantly  employed  at  the  particular 
branch  of  the  trade  to  which  he  is  indentured. 

(e)  In  no  case  shall  an  apprentice  be  allowed  to  work  overtime. 

(f)  At  the  end  of  the  period  of  apprenticeship  the  employer  shall 
give  the  apprentice  a  certificate  to  show  that  he  has  served  his 
apprenticeship.   Also  a  certificate  of  moral  character  if  required. 

(g)  Should  the  employer  at  any  time  before  the  termination  of  the 
apprenticeship  wish   for  any  reason  to  dispense  with   the   ser- 
vices of  the  apprentice,  he  shall  give  him  a  certificate  for  the 
time  served  and  procure  him   another  employer  carrying  on   a 
business  within   a   reasonable   distance   of  the   original   employ- 
er's place  of  business,  who  shall  continue  to  teach  the  appren- 
tice  and    to   pay   the    rate    of   wages    prescribed    by    this   award 
according  to  the  total  length  of  time  he  has  served,  and  gen- 
erally to  perform  the  obligation  of  the  original  employer.    But 
it   shall'*not   be    obligatory   upon    an    employer   to    find   the   ap- 
prentice another  employer  if  he  shall  so  misconduct  himself  as 
to  entitle  the  employer  to  discharge  him,  but  he  shall  give  him 
a  certificate  covering  the  time  actually  served. 

(h)  An  employer  taking  an  apprentice  shall  give  notice  to  the  In- 
spector of  Factories  within  one  week  after  the  expiration  of 
the  period  of  probation,  and  shall  state  the  branch  of  trade  to 
which  he  is  indentured.  The  employer  shall  receive  an  ac- 
knowledgment of  receipt  of  same,  and  an  employer  transferring 
an  apprentice  to  another  employer  shall  similarly  within  one 
week  give  notice  of  such  transfer  to  the  Inspector. 

(i)  An  employer  shall  not  be  deemed  to  have  discharged  his  duty 
to  an  apprentice,  if  he  fails  to  keep  him  at  work  through  slack- 
ness, but  such  slackness  may  form  a  proper  ground  for  trans- 
ferring him  to  another  employer  willing  to  undertake  the  re- 
sponsibility of  teaching  him. 

(j)  When  an  apprentice  is  discharged  for  cause,  the  employer  shall 
give  notice  in  writing  of  the  discharge  and  the  cause  thereof 
to  the  Inspector  of  Factories,  who  shall  notify  the  Secretary 
of  the  Union. 

(k)  All  time  lost  by  an  apprentice  through  his  own  default  or 
through  sickness  in  any  year  of  his  apprenticeship  shall  be 
made  up  before  such  apprentice  shall  be  considered  to  have 
entered  upon  the  next  succeeding  year  of  his  apprenticeship. 
An  apprentice  shall  not  be  compelled  to  make  up  any  time 
lost  through  accident  occurring  or  through  compulsory  mili- 
tary training. 

(I)  An  employer  shall  not  be  bound  to  pay  an  apprentice  for  lost 
time  through  the  default  of  the  apprentice  or  by  his  voluntary 
absence  from  work  with  the  consent  of  the  employer.  But  an 
employer  shall  not  be  entitled  to  make  any  deduction  from  the 
wages  of  such  apprentice  for  lost  time  through  sickness  or 
any  cause  other  than  those  hereinbefore  described. 

129 


(m)  It  shall  be  deemed  to  be  a  breach  of  this  award  if  an  employer 
uses  any  undue  influence  to  coerce  an  apprentice  to  take  a 
holiday  with  a  view  to  avoid  payment  for  same. 

(n)  Where  facilities  are  provided,  it  shall  be  compulsory  for  an 
apprentice  to  attend  classes  at  a  Technical  College,  and  the 
employer  shall  pay  the  college  fees  for  the  period  of  two 
years  for  any  two  classes  that  the  apprentice  may  elect  to 
attend  during  any  two  years  of  his  apprenticeship. 

(o)  The  proportion  of  apprentices  to  the  number  of  journeymen 
employed  shall  be  as  one  to  four.  After  the  date  of  the  filing 
of  this  award  no  fresh  apprenticeships  shall  be  entered  into 
by  an  employer  which  will  make  the  total  number  of  appren- 
tices to  all  trades  mentioned  greater  than  the  above  propor- 
tion. For  the,  purpose  of  arriving  at  the  above  proportion,  the 
total  number  of  journeymen  shall  be  deemed  to  be  the  aver- 
age number  of  journeymen  working  on  all  the  working  days 
of  the  twelve  months  immediately  previous  to  the  time  of 
indenture. 

(P)  All  apprentices  employed  at  the  date  of  the  filing  of  this  award 
must  be  indentured  for  the  unexpired  period  of  their  appren- 
ticeship, and  the  conditions  as  to  wages,  etc.,  as  provided  in 
this  award,  to  apply  to  these  apprentices  also. 

(q)  A  Board  of  Examiners  shall  be  appointed  to  consist  of  one 
representative  of  the  Union  and  one  representative  of  the  em- 
ployers. Periodical  examinations  of  the  apprentice  shall  take 
place  in  the  month  of  May.  Such  examination»-to  be  held  in 
the  workshop  where  the  apprentice  is  employed.  The  employer 
shall  provide  machinery,  time  and  material,  and  in  every  way 
facilitate  the  work  of  the  Examiners. 

If  upon  due  enquiry  the  Examiners  are  of  opinion  that  the 
apprentice  has  not  been  given  reasonable  opportunity  by  the 
employer  to  obfain  a  proper  knowledge  of  the  trade,  they  shall 
report  the  same  to  the  Department  of  Labour  as  a  breach  of 
this  award. 

The  Board  shall  be  provided  with  a  list  of  the  names  and 
occupation  of  the  various  apprentices  and  the  dates  of  their 
indenture,  and  not  less  than  14  days  previous  to  the  date  of 
the  examination  shall  issue  a  certificate  to  the  apprentice,  and 
also  notify  the  employer.  If  such  apprentice  fails  to  satisfy 
the  Examiners,  they  will  not  endorse  the  certificate  until  such 
apprentice  again  submits  himself  for  examination  and  satisfies 
them  of  his  competency. 

An  employer  shall  not  be  compelled  to  pay  an  apprentice 
the  increase  of  wages  accruing  to  him  if  he  fails  to  satisfy  the 
Examiners. 

In  the  engaging  of  apprentices  preference  shall  be  given  to 
sons  of  members  of  the  Union. 

XI.— Under-rate  Workers. 

(a)  Any  worker  who  considers  himself  incapable  of  earning  the 
minimum  wage  fixed  by  this  award,  may  be  paid  such  lower 
wage  as  may  from  time  to  time  be  fixed  on  the  application  of 
the  worker,  after  due  notice  to  the  Union  by  the  Inspector  of 
Awards  or  such  other  person  as  may  from  time  to  time  be  ap- 
pointed for  that  purpose.  And  such  Inspector  or  such  other 
person,  in  fixing  such'  wage,  shall  have  regard  to  the  worker's 
capability,  his  past  earnings,  and  such  other  circumstances  as 
such  Inspector  or  other  person  shall  think  fit  to  consider,  after 
hearing  such  evidence  arid  argument  as  the  Union  and  such 
worker  shall  offer. 

130 


(b)  Such  permit  shall  be  for  a  period  not  exceeding  six  months  as 
such   Inspector  or  other  person  may  determine,  and  after  the 
expiration  of  such  period  shall  continue  in  force  until  14  days' 
notice  has  been  given  to  such  worker  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Union,  requiring  him  to  have  his  wage  again  fixed  in  manner 
prescribed   by  this   clause.      Provided   that   in   the   case  of  any 
person  whose  wage  is  so  fixed  by  reason  of  old  age  or  perma- 
nent disability,  it  may  be  fixed  for  such  longer  period  as  such 
Inspector  or  other  person  shall  think  fit. 

(c)  Notwithstanding  the   foregoing,   it   shall  be   competent  for  the 
worker  to  agree  with  the  President  or  Secretary  of  the  Union  upon 
such  wage  without  having  the  same  so  fixed. 

(d)  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Union  to  give  notice  to  the  Inspec- 
tor of  Awards  of  every  agreement  made  with  a   worker  pur- 
suant hereto. 

(e)  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  an  employer  before  employing  a  worker 
at   such  lower  wage   to   examine   the  permit   or  agreement  by 
which  such  wage  is  fixed. 

XII. — Preference. 

(a)  From  and  after  the  coming  into  the  operation   of  this  award, 
any   worker   of   the    classes   mentioned    in    Clause   VII.   hereof 
shall,  within   fourteen   days,   become   a  member  of  the  Union, 
upon    forwarding   to    the    Secretary   a   written    application,   ac- 
companied  with  an  entrance   fee   of  5/-,  and  the  weekly  con- 
tribution not  to  exceed  sixpence  per  week,  such  worker  to  be 
admitted  a  member  without  ballot  or  election,  and  such  worker 
to  be  admitted  a  member  providing  he  is   a  competent  work- 
man and  of  sober  habits  and  good  moral  character. 

(b)  It  shall  be  a  condition  of  employment  that  employees  become 
members    of  the   Union   under   the    conditions   as    set   forth   in 
sub-section  (a)  of  this  clause. 

(c)  If  any  worker  having  joined  the  Union  voluntarily  resigns,  he 
shall  be  dismissed  from  his  employment. 

XIII. 

This  award  shall  come  into  operation   upon  the  day 

of  and  continue  in  force  until  the  day  of  19 

As  Applying  to  Ohinemuri  Goldfields. 
I.— Hours  of  Work. 

(a)  Forty-four  hours  shall  constitute  a  week's  work.     Eight  hours 
shall  'be  worked   each   day  except  Saturday,  when  four  hours 
shall  be  worked. 

(b)  Work  shall  commence  at  7.30  a.m.  and  cease  at  4  p.m.,  with  an 
interval  of  half-an-hour  at  noon  for  crib  time. 

II. — Overtime. 

(a)  All  time  worked  in  excess  of  that  mentioned  in  Clause  I.  hereof 
to  be  paid  for  at  the  rate  of  time  and  a-half  until  10  o'clock 
p.m..  and  from  thence  until  starting  of  the  ordinary  day  shift 
next  morning,  double  time  rates  to  be  paid,  and  each  day  to 
stand  by  itself. 

(b)  Systematic  overtime  not  allowed.     Overtime  worked  for  more 
than    12   hours    in   two    consecutive   weeks    to   be   deemed   sys- 
tematic. 


III. — Holidays  and  Sundays. 

(a)  Work  done  upon  New  Year's  Day,  Good  Friday,  -Easter  Mon- 
day, Christmas  Day,  Boxing  Day,  Miners'  Day  or  Sunday,  dou- 
ble  time    rates    to   be   paid   for   working   the    same   number   of 
hours  of  an  ordinary  day. 

(b)  Any  time  worked  before  7.30  a.m.  and  after  4  p.m.  shall  be  paid 
for  at  the  rate  of  time  and  a-half  in  addition. 

(c)  An   employee   called   to  work  after  usual  working  hours    shall 
receive  a  minimum  payment  equivalent  to  four  hours'  work. 

IV.— Night  Shifts. 

(a)  Workers    engaged    on    afternoon    or    night    shifts    shall    receive 
2/-    per    shift    extra.      Three    consecutive    nights    or    afternoon 
shifts  to  be  worked  before  it  can  be  recognised  as  such,  other- 
wise overtime  rates  to  be  paid  as  provided  in  Clause  II.  hereof. 

(b)  Only  one   shift  in  the  twenty-four  hours  to  be  regarded   as  a 
day  shift,  namely,  that  worked  between  7.30  a.m.  and  4  o'clock 
p.m. 

(c)  Any  worker  who  has  been  engaged  for  24  hours  with  the  ex- 
ception of  crib  time,  shall  be  compelled  to  stand  off  for  eight 
hours. 

V.— Outside  Work. 

(a)  A   worker   employed    outside    of   the    employer's    establishment 
shall   be   paid   one   shilling  per   day   extra,   or   for  any  portion 
of  a  day. 

(b)  All  employees  required  to  travel  to  job  during  working  hours 
shall  be  paid  for  such  hours  at  ordinary  rates,   also  for  such 
ordinary  working  hours   that  they  may  be  kept  waiting  upon 
arrival  at  the  job. 

(c)  All   employees   required  to   travel   outside   of  ordinary   working 
hours  shall  be  paid  for  the  actual  time  of  travelling,  provided 
that  the  maximum  number  of  hours  on  each  outward  or  home- 
ward journey  to  be  so  paid  shall  be  twelve. 

(d)  Employees  shall  be  paid  their  fares  both  ways,  also  reasonable 
travelling  expenses,  and  if  required  to  stay  away  from  home, 
their  board  and  lodging  at  current  rates. 

(e)  Employees    travelling    by    boat    shall,    if    travelling    by    coastal 
boat,    be    allowed    saloon    fare,    except    when    such    represents 
steerage,  in  which  case  saloon  fare  shall  be  allowed. 

(f)  When  travelling  at  night  time  by  train,  if  at  any  time  second- 
class  sleeping  accommodation  is  provided,  the   employer   shall 
allow   second-class   sleeping   berth    ticket.      Patternmakers,    for 
work  done  outside  the  employer's  establishment,   shall  receive 
i/-  per  day  extra. 

(g)  Any  employee  sent  out  to  work  and  placed  in  charge  of  one  or 
more  workmen  shall  receive  3/-  per  day  extra. 

VI. — Dirt  Money. 

(a)  All  journeymen  or  apprentices  employed  upon  tube  mills,  ele- 
vation wheels,  turbines,  gas  engines,  condensers,  under  engine 
beds,  all  boiler  work  (other  than  new  work),  inside  boilers  or 
smoke  boxes,  and  all  underground  work,  agitators  and  crush- 
ers,  or  -any   dirty,   confined   places,   shall   be   paid    i/-   per   day 
extra  or  for  any  portion  of  a  day. 

(b)  All  journeymen  or  apprentices  employed  in  mining  shafts,  or 
at  water  turbines,  shall  also  receive  dirt  money,  and  the  shifts 
shall  not  exceed  six  hours. 

132 


VII.— Minimum  Wage. 

(a)  The    minimum    wage    for    the    following    classes    of  workmen 
shall  be:—                                                             Per  hour.  Per  day. 

s.      d.  s.      d. 

Fitters 8  13       4 

Turners  . .          . .          . .          . .          . .  8  134 

Armature   winders      . .          . .          . .          . .  8  134 

Milling    machinists     . .          . .          . .          . .  8  134 

Electrical    fitters         8  13       4 

Motor    repairers         . .          . .          . .          . .  8  134 

Wiremen  4%  n       o 

Blacksmiths      ..          ..          ..          ..          ..  8  13       4 

Coppersmiths  . .          . .          . .          . .  8  13       4 

Patternmakers  S1/?  13       8 

Machine  joiners          . .          . .          . .          . .  8%  13       8 

Planers,  shapers,   slotters   and  borers    . .       I       8  13       4 

(b)  Leading  hands  to  receive  25  per  cent,  in  addition. 

(c)  All   wages   to   be   paid  weekly  in   the   employer's   time   and  no 
back  time  to  be  kept. 

VIII.— Piecework. 

(a)  Piecework,   taskwork   or   premium   bonus   system   shall   not  be 
engaged  upon  under  any  conditions  whatsoever. 

(b)  No  workmen  to  be  employed  upon  two  machines  at  the  same 
time. 

IX. — Termination  of  Engagements. 

Upon  the  termination  of  an  engagement  either  on  the  part  of 
the  employer  or  workman,  the  wages  of  such  worker  shall  be  paid 
the  same  evening,  or  immediately  after  starting  time  next  morning^ 
failing  such  the  worker  shall  be  paid  at  ordinary  rates  for  all  such 
time  that  he  is  kept  waiting. 

X. — Apprentices. 

(a)  For  youths  at  all  classes  of  trades  mentioned  in   Clause  VII. 
hereof  the  following  rates  of  wages  shall  be  paid: — 

s.      d. 
First   year,   per   day      . .          . .          . .          . .          . .       40 

Second  year,  per  day   . .          . .          . .          . .          . .       5       o 

Third  year,  per  day      ..          ..          ..          ..          ..       6       o 

Fourth  year,  per  day   . .          . .          . .          . .          . .       7       o 

Fifth   year,   per   day      . .          . .          . .          . .          . .       8       o 

(b)  All  youths,  after  five  years'  service,  shall  receive  the  minimum 
rate  as  paid  to  journeymen. 

(c)  Certificates  covering  length  of  service  shall  be  given  to  youths 
when  leaving  their  employers. 

XI. — Preference. 

(a)  From  and  after  the  coming  into  operation  of  this  award,  any 
worker  of  the   classes  mentioned   in   Clause  VII.  hereof  shall, 
within   fourteen    days,   become   a   member    of   the   Union,   upon 
forwarding  to  the  Secretary  a  written  application  accompanied 
with  an  entrance  fee  of  s/-,  and  the  weekly  contribution  shall 
not    exceed    sixpence    per   week.      The    applicant    shall    be    ad- 
mitted without  ballot  or   election,  provided  he   is   a   competent 
workman   and   of   sober   habits   and  good   moral    character. 

(b)  It  shall  be  a  condition  of  employment  that  workmen  become 
members   of  the  Union  under  the   condition  set  forth   in   sub- 
section (a)  of  this  award. 

133 


(c)  If  any  worker  having  joined  the  Union  and  voluntarily  resigns 
from  the  same,  he  shall  be  dismissed  by  the  employer. 

Conclusions. 

Based  upon  the  information  acquired  from  many  sources, 
and  the  published  and  oral  statements  hereinbefore  presented, 
your  Commissioners  are  led  to  the  following  conclusions: 

(1)  That  magazine  and  newspaper  articles  to  the  effect 
that  Australasia  had  solved  the  industrial  problem  by  legislative 
action  and  that  Australia  and  New  Zealand  had  each  been  trans- 
formed  into   an   industrial   paradise   are   idle   tales,   without   a 
shadow  of  fact  upon  which  to  base  them;  that  instead  of  indus- 
trial conditions  in  these  countries  being  "ideal,"  they  are  deplor- 
able in  the  extreme,   and  that  there  are  to  be   found  in  New 
Zealand  and  Australia  more  idle,  disillusioned,  faultfinding  people 
who  condemn  the  country  and  its  institutions,  than  can  be  found 
in  any  other  communities  of  equal  population. 

(2)  That  New  Zealand  is,  as  has  been  claimed,  "a  glorious 
little  country,"  and  that  the  development  of  its  cities,  its  com- 
merce and  industries  in  the  60  years  of  its  progressive  history, 
bespeaks  thrift  and  energy  on  the  part  of  the  sturdy,  open- 
hearted  people  who  have  brought  such  things  to  pass,  but  who, 
because  of  the  general  prosperity  which  they  have  enjoyed,  have 
grown  apathetic  and  indifferent  as  to  whither  its  institutions, 
politically,    were   drifting,   until   an  organized   minority,    which 
looks  upon  the  public  purse  as  an  inexhaustible  treasure  supply 
from  which  every  man  can  help  himself,  had  practically  seized 
control  of  the  Government,  and  until  evidence  of  decadence  is 
seen  and  heard  on  all  sides;  that  the  eyes  of  the  sober-minded, 
substantial  citizens  have  been  opened  to  the  deplorable  conditions 
into  which,  during  the  past  decade  or  more,  the  country  has 
been  plunged,  and  that  they  now  are  moving  to  correct  the  errors 
which  have  surreptitiously  crept  into  their  legislative  policies. 
Results  of  recent  elections  indicate  that  New  Zealand  is  retrac- 
ing her  steps. 

(3)  That  the  natural  resources  of  Australia  measure  up  to 
the  claims  that  are  made  for  them,  and  that  it  has  followed  the 
lead  of  New  Zealand  in  the  matter  of  experimental  legislation 
and  State  Socialism,  which  have  taken  root  and  become  a  chronic 
disease  in  the  Commonwealth  and  State  Governments,  with  the 
result  that  Australia  is  facing  a  period  of  decadence  and  dry 
rot,  while  the  process  of  "Nationalizing  the  Industries"  is  still 
going  on,  and  a  chief  subject  of  agitation  is  the  placing  of  a 
premium  on  idleness  by  the  paying  of  wages,  out  of  the  public 
treasury,  to  habitual  idlers  and  unemployed. 

134 


(4)  That,  although  there  is  plenty  of  wealth  in  Australasia, 
there  is  no  vulgar  or  ostentatious  display  of  it.     People  having 
vested  interests  at  stake  realize  the  socialistic  trend  of  things 
and  religiously  avoid  aggravating  the  situation  by  feeding  the 
soap  box  orator  and  his  political  allies  with  examples  of  luxurious 
display  of  what  they  please  to  call  "predatory  wealth."     In  this 
regard  Australasia  is  holding  out  an  object  lesson  that  would  be 
well  for  many  people  in  this  country  to  heed  and  follow. 

(5)  That,  in  practical  operation,  State  Socialism  in  Aus- 
tralasia, while  attractive  in  theory  to  some  people,  has  proved  a 

.dismal  failure  and  has  made  these  countries  appear  before  the 
world  as  "ideal  countries  going  wrong"  and  as  expressed  in  the 
language  of  one  of  their  own  business  men  supported  by  the 
opinion  of  many  others,  as  "the  Paradise  of  fools,"  the  responsi- 
bility for  which  rests  chiefly  upon  the  shoulders  of  dishonorable 
politicians . who  make  capital  out  of  catering  to  the  organized  vote 
at  the  expense  of  the  welfare  of  the  country.  The  hope  of  Aus- 
tralasia lies  in  the  repudiation  of  these  politicians  and  their 
theories. 

(6)  That  the  Press  of  Australasia  is,  as  a  rule,  clean,  con- 
servative and  fair,  with  very  little  tendency  to  muck-raking,  or 
yellow  journalism,  which  may,  however,  be  accounted  for  by  some 
law   regulating  the  liberty   of   the   Press — (while   we   were  at 
Sydney,   a  judgment   for-  $2,000  was  affirmed  against  a   Mel- 
bourne newspaper  for  printing  an  obituary  notice  of  a  person 
not  dead,  which  was  handed  into  the  office  of  the  paper  in  the 
customary   manner  by   some   person   not   identified)  ;   that   the 
fairness,  vigilance  and  impartiality  of  the  Press  is  a  prime  factor 
in  keeping  public  life  reasonably  clean. 

(7)  That  the  stretch  of  conscience  that  enables  a  repre- 
sentative of  all  the  people  to  vote  for  "preference  to  unionists" 
is  abominable,  and  that  decadence  is  a  just  reward  for  any  coun- 
try whose  Government  stands  for  such  a  flagrant  violation  of 
human  rights.     Yet,   with   all,   neither  the  Australian   nor  the 
Dominion  Parliaments  have  fallen  so  low  in  the  sphere  of  political 
injustice  as  to  enact,  or  even  propose,  such  vile  legislation  as 
the  exemption  provision  of  the  Sundry  Civil  Appropriations  Bill, 
passed  by  the  present  "American"  Congress,  or,  as  embodied  in 
the  Bacon-Bartlet  Bill. 

(8)  That  the  laws  of  Australasia  which  provide  for  com- 
pulsory Arbitration,  Wages  Boards  and  a  Minimum  Wage,  have 
proved  inefficient  and  inadequate   for  their  intended  purposes, 
and  that  instead  of  accomplishing  their  objects  they  are  serving 
to   make   New    Zealand   and   Australia   breeding   countries    of 
loafers  and  idlers;  that  they  have  practically  destroyed  all  hope 

135 


of  reward  for  personal  ambition  among  the  workers  and  have 
served  only  the  socialistic  purpose  of  leveling  up  and  leveling 
down  the  whole  class  to  one  standard  of  opportunity. 

(9)  That    the    wage    question    is    an    economic    problem 
which  should  be  kept  aloof  from  politics,  for  once  it  gets  mixed 
up  with  them,  it  can  never  be  separated  and  a  sorry  mess  will 
inevitably  result.     It  has  been  thoroughly  demonstrated  in  Aus- 
tralasia that  the  function  of  Government  is  not  to  appease  its 
warring  factions  by  compromising  fundamental  principles,  but 
to  protect  the  rights  of  every  citizen  by  the  use  of  all  the  power 
at   its   command   when   necessary;   that   the   more   Government 
intervenes  in  private  business,  the  more  it  will  be  compelled  to 
intervene,   and   that   it   is   easy  to   enact   but   almost   impossible 
to  repeal  such  measures,  especially  when  their  effect  is  the  cre- 
ation of  a  huge  Governmental  machine. 

(10)  That   workmen's   compensation   laws   are  correct   in 
theory,  upon  the  ground  that  loss  through  injury  to  a  worker 
should  find  its  equity  in  the  cost  of  production,  and  that  when 
such  laws  are  founded  upon  just  principles  and  fairly  adminis- 
tered they  are  a  benefit  to  the  community. 

(IT)  That,  according  to  official  Commonwealth  statistics 
for  1914,  the  purchasing  power  of  money  had  depreciated  since 
1901,  practically  in  the  same  ratio  as  wages  a-dvanced  during  the 
same  period,  it  being,  therefore,  apparent  that  however  much 
legislation  may  have  been  enacted  as  a  panacea  for  the  economic 
ills  of  society,  the  same  has  had  practically  no  effect  on  the 
natural  law  of  supply  and  demand  which  has  maintained  its 
supremacy,  and  that  the  real  effect  of  the  industrial  legislation 
has  been  to  create  disappointment  and  breed  more  discontent 
by  imposing  upon  the  people  a  burdensome  and  expensive  system 
which  has  failed  to  give  value  received. 

(12)  That,  if,  in  view  of  the  homogeneous  character  of 
the  workers  of  Australia,  its  system  of  industrial  legislation  fails 
of   its  purpose,   namely,  the  creation  of   industrial   peace,   any 
hope  of  similar  legislation  proving  successful,  or  even  partially 
so,  in  the  United  States,  with  its  heterogeneous  mass  of  workers, 
must  be  futile  and  could  only  prove  suicidal  to  the  best  interests 
of  the  nation. 

(13)  That,    (a)    non-enforcement   of   law    is   one   of   the 
prime  causes  of  lawlessness  in  cases  of  labor  disturbance,  and 
for  which  officials  charged  with  the  responsibility  of  maintaining 
the  peace  should  be  held  to  account;   (b)   that  officials  of  labor 
unions  should  be  held  individually  responsible  for  damages  ac- 
cruing  from   strikes,    in   the   same   manner   that   directors    and 

136 


officers  of  business  corporations  are  held  responsible  for  what 
happens  as  result  of  their  actions.  If  this  were  the  case,  there 
would  be  fewer  strikes,  less  maiming  of  independent  workers 
and  less  destruction  of  property;  (c)  that  employees  of  public 
service  utilities  should  be  enlisted  for  stated  periods,  under  con- 
tract that  would  make  stoppage  by  strike  or  other  conspiracy 
equivalent  to  mutiny  or  desertion;  (d)  that,  if  the  organization 
of  the  labor  unions  places  men  in  power  in  Government  who 
enact  laws  favorable  to  the  unionists,  such  Government  will  re- 
fuse to  enforce  such  laws  against  the  unions.  A  domestic  ex- 
ample of  such  dereliction  in  the  enforcement  of  the  law  against 
powerful  privileged  classes  is  found  in  the  unwillingness  of  our 
Federal  Government  to  prosecute  labor  unions  under  the  Sher- 
man Law. 

(14)  That  practically  all  labor  organizations  of  Austral- 
asia,  as   in  the  United   States   and   elsewhere,   are  based   upon 
false  principles — principles  that  are  not  only  economically  un- 
sound, but  which  work  unjust  and  cruel  hardship  upon  the  ma- 
jority of  workers  themselves,  who  do  not  agree  with  the  unions 
but  suffer  at  the  hands  of  an  organized  minority  of  their  fellows, 
who  try  to   force  out  of   industry  more  than  it  contains,   and 
whose  slogan  is  the  socialistic  idea  that  labor  creates  all  wealth 
and,  therefore,  all  wealth  belongs  to  labor.     But  we  have  only  to 
look  at  the  results  of  labor  when  not  directed  by  superior  guid- 
ance, reinforced  by  capital,  to  see  the  absurdity  and  ridiculous- 
ness of  the  claim. 

(15)  That,    (a)    a  practical   remedy  for  industrial  unrest 
and  disturbance  lies  in  the  dissolution  of  unionism  as  at  present 
organized,  and  the  founding  of  a  new  unionism,  with  efficiency 
and   greater   productivity,    instead   of    deficiency   and   restricted 
productivity,  as  its  watchword  and  basis  of  conduct,  and  recog- 
nizing that  the  only  line  along  which  it  can  hope  to  permanently 
better  labor,  or  realize  its  expectations  is  by  lessening  the  cost  of 
production  through  increased  productivity,  and  thereby  increas- 
ing the  purchasing  power  of  money  wages;  (b)  that  when  labor 
purges  itself  of  its  evil  and  organizes  with  equity  in  lieu  of  arbi- 
trary despotism  as  its  basic  principle,  when  it  adopts  and  operates 
upon  a  platform  of  equitable  business  methods  and  when  it  seeks 
no  privileges  which  it  is  unwilling  to  extend  to  others,  then  and 
not  until  then  will   industrial  peace  and  harmony  be  restored, 
then  and  not  until  then  will  labor  and  capital  go  forward  hand 
in  hand  to  higher  and  nobler   achievements.     It   is   not  within 
the  tolerance  of  human  nature  for  one  class  of  citizens  to  meekly 
submit  to  the  imposition  of  tyranny  by  another  class. 

i37 


(16)  That,  the  fact  of  the  whole  matter  is  that  the  only 
thing   that   will   save  our   own   country   from  the   influence   of 
organized  industrial  despotism,  is  concrete  organization  and  co- 
operation of  employers  and  other  forces  who  are  opposed  to  the 
same,  too  many  of  whom  have  heretofore  been  apathetic  and  in- 
different as  to  what  has  been  going  on  around  them,  and  too 
much  absorbed  in  business  and  pleasure,  but  who  cannot  escape 
the  consequences  if  they  stand  idly  by  and  permit  an  organized 
minority  to  rule  over  them,  and  who,  in  furtherance  of  that  end 
elect  to  public  office  men  who  have  no  scruples  about  lending 
their  influence  to  the  promotion  of  class  legislation  designed  to 
tear  down  the  citadel  of  security  that  has  so  long  preserved  our 
free  institutions,  and  who  cast  their  vote  at  the  crack  of  the  lash 
of  organized  labor,  for  which  they  should  be  treated  with  con- 
tempt in  their  respective  communities. 

(17)  That,  the  more  industrial  peace  is  sought  to  be  en- 
forced through  legislation  which  encroaches  upon  the  natural  and 
inalienable  rights  of  citizens,  the  more  pronounced  will  be  the 
spirit  of  antipathy  between  the  employer  and  the  employed ;  that 
there  are  certain  avenues  over  which  industrial  legislation  can 
safely  and  successfully  travel,  and  other  avenues  which  lead  to 
turmoil  and  strife  and  therefore  unwise  to  enter  upon.     We  be- 
lieve  results    in   Australia   clearly   demonstrate   that    industrial 
"salvation  by  legislation  is  not  possible,"  that  "there  are  many 
things  legislation  can  do,  but  there  are  many  things  it  can  not 
do/'  and  therefore  great  care  should  be  exercised  to  draw  the  line 
at  the  proper  limit,  wherein  lies  the  danger  of  industrial  legisla- 
tion.    Men  can  enact  legislation  that  will  assist  the  operation  of 
natural  laws,  but  when  they  undertake  to  enact  laws  which  are 
opposed  to  the  laws  of  Nature  failure  and  chaos  will  be  the  in- 
evitable result. 

(18)  That,  inasmuch  as  a  number  of  States  have  enacted, 
and  others  are  contemplating  enacting,  minimum  wage  laws,  we 
believe  that  such  legislation  is  ill-advised  and  will  in  time  prove  a 
serious  mistake,  in  that  it  will  work  to  the  detriment  rather  than 
to  the  advantage  of  the  common  weal,  and,  furthermore,  that 
legislation  having  for  its   object  the  regulation   or  control  of 
contractural   relations  between  employer  and  employee  in  this 
country  should  be  given  far  more  serious  consideration  by  our 
lawmakers  than  it  has  heretofore  received,  lest  we  encounter  the 
pitfalls   to   which   attention   has   hereinbefore   been   specifically 
called,  only  to  find,  in  the  last  analysis,  that  "in  going  down  hill 
on  a  slippery  track  the  going  is  easy,  the  task,  getting  back." 

(19)  That,    inasmuch    as    present-day    legislation    seems 

138 


to  be  leaning  strongly  toward  a  policy  of  compromise  of  basic 
principles  in  partial  satisfaction,  at  least,  of  organized  demands 
for  special  privileges  and  immunities,  and  for  so-called  "Social 
Justice,"  regardless  of  its  effect  on  prosperity  and  posterity,  we 
recommend  that  the  National  Association  of  Manufacturers,  in 
keeping  with  its  constructive  policies,  adopt  measures  to  keep 
itself  informed  on  the  progress  and  development  of  all  subjects 
for  legislation  affecting  fundamental  principles,  that  it  may  at  all 
times  be  in  position  to  act  intelligently  and  wisely  with  respect 
thereto  and  not  fall  into  the  snare  of  supporting  measures  pur- 
porting to  be  constructive,  but  which,  in  the  last  analysis,  will 
prove  to  be  destructive,  and  that  it  steadfastly  maintain  its  oppo- 
sition to  any  and  all  legislative  innovations  whose  tendencies  are 
to  create  or  encourage  national  inefficiency,  or  class  distinction, 
or  which  do  not  contribute  to  human  achievement. 

(20)  That,  waiving  the  questions  of  its  Socialistic  tendencies 
and  its  deplorable  industrial  conditions,  which  will,  we  believe, 
right  themselves  in  time,  Australasia,  located  as  it  is  in  the  South 
Pacific,  aloof  from  all  other  English  speaking  nations,  is  prone 
to  a  friendly  and  sympathetic  feeling  toward  the  United  States 
to  which  it  would  naturally  turn  for  assistance  in  seasons  of  dis- 
tress,   and   that   the   possessions   of   the   United    States   in   the 
Hawaiian  and  the  Philippine  Islands  and  Samoa  should  lead  to 
a  close  bond  of  friendship  and  mutual  interest  between  these 
countries  and  cement  them  together  in  inseparable  ties  of  friend- 
ly intercourse  and  good  will. 

(21)  That  it  is  not  to  be  inferred  from  anything  herein, 
that  we  deprecate  legitimate  progress,  decry  effort  to  bring  about 
an  amelioration  of  the  condition  of  labor,  or  are  averse  to  any- 
thing which  will  work  a  restoration  of  the  ancient  amity  that 
existed  between  employer  and  employee.     We  heartily  approve 
every  movement  that  promises  permanent  progress  to  either  labor 
or  capital.     We  cordially  espouse  all  effort  intelligently  directed 
to  improvement  in  the  conditions  of  labor  and  laborer,  and  we 
look  forward  with  genuine  enthusiasm  to  that  day  which  shall 
witness  the  exit  of  the  professional  agitator  and  the  advent  of 
peace  between  employer  and  employee,  a  peace  based  upon  mutual 
regard  for  mutual  interests  and  not  upon  selfish  regard  for  mere 
class  advancement. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

JOHN  KIRBY,  JR. 
DAVID  M.  PARRY. 

ALBERT  A.  SNOWDEN, 

Secretary. 
139 


INDEX 


PAGE 

Accidents,  compensation  for 10 

Adelaide,  city  of,  brief  account  of 6 

Anti-Trust  Legislation 15 

Apprentice,  form  of  application  for  license  to  work  as 60 

Apprentices    97 

Arbitration,   compulsory    92 

Auckland,  city  of,  brief  account  of 116 

Australasia,  people  of,  brief  account  of 19 

Australia,  Commonwealth  of,  brief  account  of 4 

pensions  paid  in 6 

people  of    1 10 

principal  cities  of 4 

public  debt  of 6 

railways  of 7 

taxes  in  10 

Banking  institutions   18 

Brisbane,  city  of,  brief  account  of 4 

Christchurch,  city  of,  brief  account  of 117 

Cities,  principal,  of  Australia 4 

New  Zealand 1 16 

visited    3 

Commonwealth  of  Australia,  brief  account  of 4 

Compulsory  arbitration   92 

Conclusions  and   recommendations 134 

Crown  lands 16 

Discipline,   Unionism's   effect  on 83 

Dunedin,  city  of,  brief  account  of 117 

Editorial  on  debate  on  industrial  laws 25 

Editorials  and  other  newspaper  accounts 23  and  71 

Government  and  business  in  New  Zealand 117 

owned  railways  in  Australia 7 

ownership  of  homes  for  workingmen 15 

land  in  Australia 16 

New  Zealand 118 

railways  in  New  Zealand 119 

Hobart,  city  of,  brief  account  of 6 

Holidays 86   and  88 

Homes  for  workingmen 1 5 

Hours  and  wages 83 

Industrial  conditions  in  Australia 22 

New  Zealand 120 

laws,  debate  on,  newspaper  account  of 28 

press  comments  on 38 

140 


PAGE 

Industries,  Government  ownership  of 8 

Industry,   Government   regulation   of 63 

Labor  and  capital,  editorial  on 25 

Land,  Government  ownership  in  New  Zealand 118 

Laws  and  wages 69 

Industrial,  debate  on,  newspaper  account  of 28 

press  comments  on 38 

regulating  industries  63 

Melbourne,  city  of,  brief  account  of 5 

Mineral  wealth  19 

Minimum  wage,  form  of  application  for  license  to  work  at  less  than..  61 

Minimum  wages  88 

Newspaper  account  of  debate  on  industrial  laws 28 

Newspaper   articles    23  and  71 

New  Zealand,  brief  account  of 116 

cities  of  116 

Government  and  business  in 117 

ownership  of  railways  in 119 

industrial   conditions   in 120 

Output,    restriction   of 78 

Pensions  in  Australia 6 

People  of  Australia no 

Australasia,  brief  account  of 19 

Perth,  city  of,  brief  account  of 6 

Press,  Tl^e,  opinions  of 23  and  71 

Public  debt  of  Australia 6 

Railways,  Government  ownership  of,  in  Australia 7 

New  Zealand   119 

of  Australia   7 

Rates  of  wages,  weekly,  for  principal  occupations 84 

Refrigeration  system   17 

Restriction    of    output 78 

Sydney,  city,  of,  brief  account  of 5 

Taxes  in  Australia , ' 10 

Trust   Legislation    15 

Unionism,  effect  of,  on  discipline 83 

views  on    98 

what  is  wrong  with  ? 98 

Unions,  number  of  members  of,  in  Australia 82 

Wage   earners'  views 81 

Wages,  weekly  rates  of,  for  principal  occupations 84 

hours   and  83 

laws   and    69 

minimum    88 

Wellington,  city  of,  brief  account  of 116 

Workingmen,  homes  for 15 

Workmen's   Compensation    10 

141 


LOAN  DEPT. 


